Trying to Carry On
by sweetsouthernbell
Summary: He had left her, her and her daughter. She wanted nothing to do with him. What happens when he comes back and crashes the life she's tried so hard to carry on to? Season 4 spoilers inside.
1. Mishap in the park

**Title**: Trying to carry on

**Summary**: He had left her, her and her daughter. She wanted nothing to do with him. What happens when he comes back and crashes the life she's tried to carry on to?

**Ship**: S/V Baby! I don't think you'll ever get me to write any thing but a Sydney and Vaughn story. Ah well, anyway, there's bits and pieces of Will/Francie in this too.

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, I am not in ownership of Syd, Vaughn, Weiss, Jack, Will, Francie, and all of the other characters on Alias. But I do own Cory, the ice cream, and the swings.

**A/N**: In my continuing crusade to write fics that aren't usually written, I was having a lot of inspiration yesterday and was like instead of Sydney leaving Vaughn and their child, what if Vaughn had left Sydney and their child? Just an interesting twist on a plot that's been done a lot, by myself included.

**Setting:** Season two up until the telling happened, after that, nothing. No season three, no Syd missing for two years, no Lauren(thank God!), none of that. None. This would be set like seven or eight years after what would be season two, except for the telling. And no, Francie was not doubled, she is still normal Francie like in season one and the first half of season two. So again, no evil Francie and Will and Francie are married but kidless for now. Okay, you got that? Good.

**Rating:** PG-13 to be safe. It's always better to be safe than sorry. And there might be some swearing, so that's why it's PG-13.

Now on with the story!

* * *

"But Mommy."  
  
"No buts, Cory, get in the car."  
  
The six-year-old girl pouted for a moment before realizing that her mother wasn't going to budge on the subject. With an overexaggerated sigh, Cory piled into the passenger seat of the car and buckled her seatbelt. Disappointment radiated from her daughter, causing Sydney to sigh.  
  
Sydney made her way to the driver's side and got into the car as well. Cory turned her head to look out the window the second she did. "Cory?" No response. "Corrina Elaine Vaughn, look at me right now." Sydney ordered.  
  
Cory did as she was told but she made no move to hide her anger. "Yes, mommy?"  
  
_Playing cute are we? Your father used to do that too._ Sydney smiled at her daughter and said softly, "How about we get some ice cream?"  
  
"Can I get coffee?" Cory asked, eagerly. One thing she had learned from Sydney was her love of coffee ice cream.  
  
Sydney pretended to think about it. "Alright, I suppose. So is that a yes?"  
  
"Yes." Cory answered, immediately, her anger towards her mother for not letting her stay at her friend's house longer suddenly gone. Who said bribery can't get you anywhere?  
  
Sydney smiled widely and turned the engine over, "Okay, are you going to share with your dear mommy?"  
  
Cory laughed, "You can get your own mommy."  
  
Sydney laughed as well, "Alright, I'll get my own."  
  
Halfway through ice cream, Sydney's cell phone started to ring. Throwing Cory a apologetic glance, Sydney reached into her purse and produced the ringing object. Not even bothering to read the caller ID, Sydney flipped open the phone and said automatically, "Sydney here."  
  
"Hey Syd, where are you?"  
  
Weiss. Sydney smiled, "At the park getting some ice cream with Cory. What's up? Do they need me?" Code for: What does the CIA need me to analyze now?  
  
Weiss laughed, "No, they don't need you." Sydney breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since she left the CIA, they had called her in so many times to analyze this or give information on a mission to a place that she had been before. "I was just curious."

"Do you want to join us?"  
  
"Are you kidding? And miss ice cream with my two best ladies? Are you insane, Sydney Vaughn?" Weiss immediately recognized his mistake and corrected himself, "I mean Sydney Bristow."  
  
"It's okay, Eric, really. It is my last name after all even if the man that gave it to me isn't around anymore." At Cory's bewildered stare, Sydney changed the subject, "We're at the park one fifth. See you in ten?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll be there. Bye Syd."  
  
"Bye Eric." Sydney hung up the phone and shoved it back in her purse. "Uncle Eric's coming." She said, cheerily to Cory.  
  
Cory regarded her mother, "Where you talking about Daddy?"  
  
_Damn, this child is smart. I think having two spies for parents gave her the I-know-that-you're-hiding-something gene._ "Yes, sweetie. I was." It wouldn't do any good to lie to her. Then Cory would only be mad that Sydney was keeping something from her. One thing about Sydney and Cory's relationship was that they were honest with each other, or as honest as you could get with a six year old.  
  
"Where's Daddy?" was Cory's next question. It always came next after Sydney mentioned Vaughn or Daddy.  
  
"I don't know, sweetie." It was the truth or close enough to it. Sydney had no idea what had happened to Vaughn after he had left almost seven years earlier and she didn't want to know.  
  
"Is he in heaven?" This question always followed Cory's previous question.  
  
"I don't know, sweetie." Again, Sydney had no idea if Vaughn was still alive and she didn't want to know.  
  
"Is he coming back?" Well, that's actually a rare question. Cory didn't ask it very much because of the answer Sydney gave her.  
  
"I don't know, sweetie." Half of her wished that Vaughn was coming back to his wife and daughter while the other half wished that he was rotting somewhere because he left his wife and daughter. "Finish your ice cream, so when Uncle Eric gets here, you two can go play on the swing set."  
  
This seemed to lighten Cory's mood and she started eating her half melted ice cream cone again.  
  
Ten minutes later, true to his word, Weiss joined the two girls. He was greeted with a brief hug from Sydney and a wild clinging from Cory. Cory had finished her ice cream cone and begged for Weiss to pick her up. Weiss complied with her request and lifted the forty-eight pound girl effortlessly.  
  
"Is this my Cory? There's no way you could be the Cory I saw last week. You've grown too much."  
  
"It is me," Cory insisted, "Mommy says that I'm growing faster than a weed in her garden."  
  
"Well, your mommy just might be right. I don't think I've seen a weed grow as fast as you. You're getting to be a big girl now." A compliment that every little girl loved to hear. Just say that they're becoming a big girl and they love you for life or until they find someone else to love. Whatever comes first and usually it's the latter.  
  
"Can we still play on the swings now that I'm a big girl?" Cory asked, suddenly serious.  
  
"Of course, you can. Look at me, I'm nearing forty, which is old man age and I can play on the swings." Weiss said, shifting her weight a little. "Why, do you want to play on the swings with old Uncle Eric?"  
  
"You're not that old, Uncle Eric. Grandpa is old."  
  
Weiss laughed while Sydney stood shocked that her daughter would say that before she started to laugh as well. "Yes, Jack Bristow is very old." Weiss set Cory down and gave her a slight push towards the swings, "Why don't you get a head start, I just need to have a word with Mommy."  
  
"Okay." Cory agreed before running off towards the swings.  
  
"She really is a sweetheart." Weiss commented.  
  
"Yes she is," Sydney agreed. She studied Weiss for a moment, "What's really going on? I don't believe that you just wanted to hang out with us."  
  
"They found him." Sydney's heart literally stopped beating before Weiss added, "Well, they found traces of him. Photos, documents, credit card bills, things like that."  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
"Currently, we have no idea. He was last spotted in Switzerland three months ago and he appeared to be just passing through. He could be literally anywhere."  
  
Sydney was silent, trying to process the new information. At long last, she finally spoke. "Well, at least now I can tell Cory that her father isn't in heaven."  
  
Weiss stared at the woman in front of him, "That's it? That's all you have to say about the man that left you?"  
  
"What do you want me to say, Eric? You said it yourself, he left me and when I was pregnant no less. I have nothing to say in regards to that man." Sydney answered in fast, hushed whispers. Sydney glanced over his shoulder to check on Cory when she froze, "Where's Cory?"  
  
Weiss turned around and did a quick search of the park. Cory was no where in sight. "I don't know. She was just here a minute ago."  
  
"You go that way, I'll go this way." Sydney ordered, taking off at a run in the direction of the playground. Weiss obeyed her orders and took off running the opposite direction.  
  
"Cory! Cory, where are you! Cory!" Sydney yelled over and over, searching the faces for a trace of her daughter's. She was met with strangers.  
  
For a moment, she thought that Cory had been kidnapped by one of Sydney's enemies that she had made during her time with the CIA. God knows, she had a lot of them. Sloane, Sark, Anna Espinosa -though that enemy was made during her work with SD-6-, Irina Derevko, Alexander Kasinau, and that's just at the top of the list. It didn't include all the low level crime leaders and their lackeys that she had pissed off.  
  
"Cory! Cory! Cory, answer me!" Across the park, she could hear Weiss's urgent calls for Cory as well.  
  
Then a thought struck her. What if he had taken her? What if he had followed them to the park and had taken his daughter the first chance he got? Weiss had said that he was spotted, alive, three months ago and that he could be anywhere. What if he had come to L.A. to take Cory? If he had her, he could disappear again and Sydney would never see her daughter again.  
  
"Cory!" Her voice was beginning to get hoarse from yelling over and over. All of the sudden, a little girl's voice came from behind Sydney, saying, "Here I am!" The girl giggled after.  
  
Sydney spun around, relief filling every inch of her body when she saw Cory standing behind her, alive and well and with Vaughn no where in sight. Sydney rushed to her daughter, falling to her knees and taking the child in her arms. "Oh my goodness, you're safe." Sydney gasped, holding Cory tightly to her.  
  
"Of course I am, Mommy. I was hiding." Cory seemed very proud of herself to accomplish the act of hiding from her mom and uncle. And if she hadn't thought that Vaughn had taken her, Sydney would have been proud of her daughter on her vanishing act.  
  
But she had had that thought and it scared her to death to think that Vaughn could take her at any moment and she would never see Cory again. "Don't you ever do that, again. Do you hear me, Cory? Don't ever do that to me again."  
  
Cory seemed upset and confused by Sydney's sudden outburst, "Why Mommy?"  
  
"Because I thought that you had been kidnapped, sweetie and that thought scared me so much." Sydney didn't need to inform Cory that she thought that she had been kidnapped by her father. That would cause Cory to be scared of Vaughn and that was one thing that Sydney didn't want.  
  
Cory nodded and wrapped her arms around Sydney's neck. "I won't do that ever again, Mommy. I promise."  
  
Sydney smiled and pulled Cory closer to her. Over Cory's shoulder, she noticed Weiss and his relived expression that Cory had been found. "I love you," Sydney whispered.  
  
"I love you, too, Mommy." Cory whispered back.

* * *

Yay? Nay? Continue? Reviews please! 


	2. Dreams

A/N: The italics are Sydney's dream. And in case you haven't read any of my other stories, this () means that time has lapsed or a change in location or both.

* * *

After their little mishap in the park, Sydney brought Cory home, fed her dinner and put her to bed early with promises that she and Uncle Eric could play on the swings another time.  
  
Now Sydney sat on the sofa in the living room, sipping at a glass of wine. The thought that Vaughn could come at any time and take Cory away still played on her mind and refused to die. At first, she told herself that Vaughn wouldn't do something like that, it just wasn't how he was. But then, she remembered that abandoning his pregnant wife wasn't like the Vaughn she knew either.  
  
With a small sigh, she set the glass down on the end table and lay down on the couch. She had no intention of falling asleep but somehow she did._"Are you sure?" Sydney asked, eagerly.  
  
The doctor smiled briefly and nodded, "Yes, Mrs. Vaughn, I'm sure, you're going to have a baby."  
  
Sydney squealed and gave the doctor a quick hug, "Thank you so much you are the best man ever with the exception of my husband of course."  
  
"I hear that a lot."  
  
"This time I mean it, you are going to get an award or something." Sydney stopped herself from saying any more and making any more of a complete fool of herself. "Thank you, again. I have to go, like now." Sydney fled the doctor's office, silently chastising herself for acting like such a complete moron. Ah, who cared, she was going to have a baby! And with Vaughn. A baby with Vaughn, something she had never thought that she would ever get to say.  
  
Traffic was not kind to her and she had to wait an entire hour just to make the normally fifteen minute drive home. Finally when traffic cleared, Sydney slammed down on the gas and sped home.  
  
"Vaughn! I mean Michael!" One thing Sydney had yet to learn after a year of marriage was to call Vaughn, Michael instead of Vaughn all the time.  
  
"Yes, Bristow, I mean Sydney." Vaughn answered playfully from the kitchen. Normally Sydney would have reminded him that her name was Sydney Vaughn and not Sydney Bristow anymore but she had just found out that she was going to have a baby. A baby! With Vaughn!  
  
"Guess what?" She asked, excitedly, and bounding into the kitchen.  
  
He kissed her on the forehead before answering, "I don't know. Are you joining the circus? The red bozo hair thing works for you."  
  
She laughed and playfully hit him on the arm, "No, I'm not joining the circus, Michael or should I say, Daddy."  
  
"Daddy?" Vaughn questioned, momentarily confused. Then it dawned on him. "Daddy?" This time it was more serious. She nodded. "Really?"  
  
"Yes," She cried, laughing, "You're going to be a daddy and I'm going to be a mommy."  
  
"Oh, Syd," Vaughn breathed, taking her in his arms and twirling her around.  
  
Sydney laughed, then whispered in his ear, "I don't think this can be good for the baby."  
  
He promptly set her down and his hand went immediately to her stomach, "Are you okay? Is the baby okay?"  
  
She smiled at him, "Yes, I just wanted an excuse to kiss you." She pressed her lips lightly to his and when she pulled back, he was staring at her. "What?"  
  
A small smile crept up on his lips. "We're going to have a baby." He said, softly.  
  
"We're going to have a baby." She repeated.  
  
"We're going to have a baby." He said, this time with more enthusiasm.  
  
"We're going to have a baby!" She cried, throwing her arms around his neck.  
  
()  
  
"Come on, Michael, you have to come. It's just lunch with my dad."  
  
Vaughn snorted in an attempt not to laugh, "No, Syd, for you it's just lunch with your dad. For me, it's lunch with Jack Bristow, the man that will kill me when you tell him that you're pregnant."  
  
Sydney smiled, a smile that meant that she was up to something, "Dad won't kill you because I'm pregnant. I promise."  
  
"Why do I even have to go?" Vaughn complained, "He's your father and you're the one who needs to eat not me."  
  
"Well, he's your father-in-law and you'll have to face him eventually and it's better to have me there to play mediator. Besides if you aren't at that restaurant, I won't eat a bite."  
  
Vaughn stared at her, "You're evil, you know that? Threatening me with our unborn child."  
  
"Does that mean you're coming?"  
  
"How about this, I go with you and you go sit at the same table with Jack and I go and sit all the way across the restaurant at another table with thirty armed CIA guards."  
  
"Umm, no," Sydney shook her head, "Either you're at the table with me and Dad and there are no armed CIA guards or I don't eat and when our baby is born underweight, we can blame you."  
  
Vaughn let out his breath slowly and nodded, "Alright, I'll go but only because I love you and that poor baby that you're carrying."  
  
Sydney gave him an impish grin and kissed him on the cheek, "And if you're a good boy, I'll buy you an ice cream cone on the way home."  
  
"Can I get chocolate chip cookie dough?" Vaughn asked, hopefully.  
  
"Yes, my little Michael, but only if you behave yourself."  
  
"I will, scout's honor."  
  
Sydney grinned, "That's my good little boy scout."  
  
Vaughn frowned momentarily, "Don't call me that."  
  
()  
  
Sunlight streamed in through the window above Sydney and Vaughn's bed as Sydney slowly opened her eyes, and smiled noticing that Vaughn was watching her. "How long have you been watching me?"  
  
"A little while," He answered.  
  
"How long's a little while?"  
  
"About an hour and a half." He smiled and adjusted the pillow beneath his head before adding, "You talk even more in your sleep now that you're pregnant."  
  
Sydney chuckled, "I think you're making that up. I don't talk in my sleep."  
  
"Yes you do."  
  
"No I don't."  
  
"Yes you do." Sydney would have continued their little game if it wasn't for the sudden wave of nausea that came over her. "Syd?" Vaughn asked, worried.  
  
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sydney cried, throwing back the covers and running into the bathroom.  
  
Moments later, Vaughn heard the sound of Sydney emptying her stomach into the toilet. He quietly got out of the bed and followed her into the bathroom. Without a word, he sat down on the cold tile next to her and gathered her hair in his hand. A few minutes later after the baby was done playing with mommy's stomach, Sydney reached for a towel to wipe her mouth off with before leaning back onto Vaughn's chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist, silenting reassuring her that he loved her.  
  
()  
  
"Vaughn?" Sydney asked, quietly. No movement, "Michael?" She asked, trying his first name, and this time a little louder. Vaughn stirred slightly in his sleep but made no move of getting up. "Michael Christopher Vaughn!" She yelled, shaking him.  
  
Vaughn jolted awake and rubbed at his eyes sleepily to make sure that he wasn't imagining Sydney sitting over him, wide awake in the middle of the night. "Sydney, what's wrong?"  
  
"I'm hungry and we don't have any peanut butter or bagels." Sydney whined, though she tried not to. One of her latest food cravings: bagels and peanut butter. At least it was better than the ice cream and green peas she had been demanding earlier in the week. Now that was just plain disgusting.  
  
Vaughn sighed and sat up, fumbling for his keys on the nightstand next to his side of the bed. "Smooth or chunky?" He asked.  
  
She smiled, "Smooth, no chunky, no smooth."  
  
He interrupted her, "How about I get both?"  
  
She kissed him on the cheek, "You're a life saver."  
  
"I know," He answered, patting her small bump. At four months, Sydney was just starting to show. "I love you."  
  
"I love you too but if you don't hurry, I'm going to starve and our baby will be born underweight."  
  
"Are you ever going to stop threatening me with not feeding our baby?"  
  
"Not if you don't come back from the store fast," She answered, handing him his cell phone, "In case I want something else."  
  
He took the phone and gave her a quick peck before grabbing some pants and stumbling out the door.  
  
By the time he got back, which wasn't any later than a half hour at most, Sydney had fallen asleep again. Sighing, Vaughn placed the bag of bagels on the counter with the peanut butter next to them in case Sydney woke up before he did which was almost a given. Then he headed back to their bed, somewhere along the way, tossing off his jeans and settling back into the bed next to Sydney. "I love you," He whispered into her hair, pulling her closer to her him, "And this little one too." He placed his hand over her belly and sighed. "Never doubt that." He wasn't sure that she actually heard him but that didn't really matter to him, just that he said it.  
  
()  
  
"Michael, get the door!" Sydney yelled, from the kitchen after the doorbell rang.  
  
"Yes, dear." Vaughn sighed, reluctantly leaving the football game he was watching to answer the door. "Hey Will, Hey Francie." He said, with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.  
  
"Where is she?" Francie asked excitedly.  
  
"In the kitchen," Vaughn answered as Francie pushed past him and into the kitchen.  
  
"Sydney!" Francie screeched, running to hug her best friend. Sydney was surprised by the sudden appearance of a person and did her best not to topple over and return Francie's hug. Without warning, Francie released Sydney and took a step back to examine her. "Syd, you look wonderful!" She exclaimed, placing a hand on Sydney's now rounder five month belly.  
  
Sydney laughed, "What's up with everyone wanting to touch my stomach?"  
  
"It's a thing that comes with pregnancy deal with it," Francie said firmly, causing Sydney to laugh harder.  
  
Finally Sydney stopped laughing enough to carry on an actual conversation, "So how's the wedding going?"  
  
Francie groaned, "I hate planning for weddings, mine included."  
  
"You didn't seem to mind helping me." Sydney pointed out.  
  
"Yeah well, my best friend was getting married to the love of her life, it had to be special."  
  
"And Will's not the love of your life?" Sydney questioned, turning back to her supper preparations.  
  
Francie shook her head frantically, "No, of course he is. It's just that it's a pain when it's your wedding. It makes me want to run away to Vegas and get married there."  
  
Sydney chuckled, "Me and Michael almost did that six times. We actually got to the Nevada border once before we turned around."  
  
"If Will and I go to Vegas, I want you and Michael to be our witnesses."  
  
"We wouldn't miss it for the world, Fran." Sydney promised.  
  
()  
  
Sydney woke slowly, realizing that her stomach was growling. With a sleepy hand, she reached over towards Vaughn's side of the bed to wake him up so he could go to the store and get her some spaghetti –her latest craving, one that the Vaughn household was currently lacking- but her hand fell on cool sheets. "Michael?" She asked, sitting up, slowly as her sixth month belly weighed her down. "Michael!?" She yelled. Silence greeted her.  
  
Confused, Sydney slipped out of the bed and wandered, well waddled, around the apartment in search of Vaughn. No one was there. She picked up the cordless phone from the counter and dialed his cell number. His cell started ringing from the dining room table. Curious, she wandered over to it and answered the phone to make sure was actually his. "Hello?" She tested. The cell phone in her hand echoed, "hello?"  
  
Thoroughly confused now, Sydney set down his cell phone and hung up the cordless phone in her hand. She then checked by the front door for his running shoes in case he went for a run. No, the shoes were still there were he had left them earlier that morning.  
  
"Michael...Vaughn?" She wondered again, "Where are you?" Nothing but the silence of the apartment answered her.  
  
Beginning to panic, Sydney waddled as fast as she could back to the bedroom and flung open his closet door. She let a small shriek before sinking to the floor. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. His clothes were still there. He hadn't packed the two suitcases he owned with his clothes and left in the middle of the night. There was just no way that his closet could be almost empty. Maybe he had a mission. Yeah, that's it, a mission.  
  
Remembering the phone in her hand, Sydney frantically dialed Dixon's number. "Dixon, did you send Michael on a mission?" She didn't have time for pleasantries, she needed to know now.  
  
"No, Syd, why? What's going on? Sydney?"  
  
Sydney didn't answer. Instead, she clicked off the phone and threw it across the room where it shattered against the wall before bursting out into tears. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be possible that Vaughn had left her. He wouldn't do that. He loved her. He said so every day. He looked at her with so much love and adoration. He loved their baby. He talked to her stomach almost every night when he wasn't on a mission. He would tell it stories or sing to it or make it promises for the future.  
  
"Why?!" She screamed to the empty apartment, "All I want is why!"  
_  
Sydney woke with a start, unsure of what woke her. It couldn't have been the dream. She'd had it before.  
  
Then she heard why she had been awakened from her sleep. Cory's frantic call, "Mommy!"  
  
Sydney leapt off the couch and ran down the hall to her daughter's room. A thousand things running through her mind. A thousand possibilities of why Cory was screaming for her. And the one at the top of the list was Vaughn was attempting to take Cory. This only made Sydney run faster.

* * *

A/N: Holy crap! Excuse my language, but I have never gotton that many reviews for one chapter before. Thank you guys so much! I'm so happy that you guys like my story enough to give me that many reviews! I am hereby dedicating the remainder of this story to those of you who reviewed. I love you guys! I really, really, do!

**Maddy**- Thanks. Vaughn does seem kinda stupid at the moment doesn't he? ::shrugs:: maybe he is maybe his isn't. Anyway, you were my first reviewer for this and for that I want to doubly thank you.

**me**- Really? You really think that this is the best Alias fic ever? That's sweet. I don't know what else to say but sweet. I guess you could say I was speechless.

**Rach5**- I can say this, there will be some butt kicking when Vaughn shows up. I'm not saying any more than that. Oh, and thanks.

**anonymous**- Thanks, I will.

**Kniki**- I thought it was a good twist on that plot, too. Thanks.

**Heidi**- Thanks and you will soon enough.

**kay10197**- Potential is good. I don't think anyone said my fic's had potential before. Thanks.

**Sydney Bristow**- Thanks and you'll find out soon.

**Julia**- Thanks, it's all in a day's work, coming up with stories that no one else does. I like doing stuff like that.

**alexis**- There is, just wait. He might turn out to be a jerk, he might not. Hard to say. That's my failing attempt at being cryptic.

**neptunestar**- Thanks. I like your stories. So the fact that you would review mine, is really cool. Okay, enough of me sounding like an idiot.

**x-elektra-natchios-x**- Thanks, I like your name by the way. That's like one of my favorite movies.

**olivia**- Thanks, and I will write more.

**Eyghon**- Is that a sarcastic comment, the "long" thing? I can't tell if it is. I have a hard time telling sarcasm from sincerity even though I'm like the queen of sarcasm, crown and everything.

**KMB**- Hope, there was enough background in this chapter for ya. There will be more, I just wanted to have the basics down.

**Hannah**- Thanks and I will.

**jenny**- He does, just wait. Or at least, I think it's a good reason. It could be crap in everyone else's mind.

**Willow Black**- Thanks. I like that word "yay". I saw Robin hood: men in tights and never let the "yay" or "nay" thing die. Have you seen that movie?

**morrisseylover**- Thanks. Glad you love it.

**Charmed-angel4**- I think this chapter answers you question as to if Vaughn knew that she was pregnant. I really made him sound like a jerk didn't I? Oh well, there is a reason. Anyway, thanks for the review. I remember you reviewing my other stories like A Charming Alias. It's like I have a follower or something. Very cool.

**sara- **hehe, I get yelled out for being at the computer too much. But usually I just sit here, staring at the computer screen and force everyone else in my family to go use the old, slow computer that doesn't work all that great. hehe, I am so mean to my family.


	3. The Zoo

Sydney ran into Cory's room, breathless. She quickly scanned the room. And there was no immediate sign that Vaughn had been there. Her eyes fell on Cory and motherly concern took over her thoughts of kicking Vaughn's ass.  
  
"Cory, what's wrong?" Sydney asked, a winded whisper, sitting next to her daughter on the bed.  
  
Cory sniffled, "I had a bad dream."  
  
Sydney breathed a sigh of relief before taking her daughter in her arms, "It's okay, sweetie. You're okay now. Everything's okay."  
  
Cory sniffled again, and wiped at her tears hastily, "It was awful, Mommy."  
  
"Do you want to tell me about it?"  
  
Cory nodded, "There was this bad man, a really, really bad man and he was trying to take me away and I was yelling for you and you wouldn't come. Then I heard you running down the hall and so did the bad man and he left out the window."  
  
Cory buried her head in Sydney's lap, starting to sob again. Sydney smoothed Cory's hair and whispered reassurances that she would always protect her. A light breeze came over the room, lifting Cory's hair slightly. Sydney looked up from Cory for a second to see where the breeze originated from.  
  
A small gasp escaped her lips, seeing Cory's bedroom window open, the night breeze blowing in and fluttering with the curtains. It wasn't that the window was open that scared Sydney. It was that she could have sworn that she had closed the window before leaving Cory for the night.  
  
It dawned on her suddenly that Cory's "dream" had every possibility of not actually being a dream. It was completely possible that he had been in her room and attempted Sydney's worst fear. More over, it was likely that was what had actually happened.  
  
"Mommy, can I stay in your room, tonight?" Cory asked, picking up her head.  
  
Sydney tore her eyes away from the window and looked down at Cory, her head nodding slightly, "Sure, sweetie. Come on." He couldn't take her if Cory was in the same room as Sydney. She would shoot him, in front of his daughter, before she let that happen.  
  
Cory sat up and took Sydney's hand, letting her lead her towards Sydney's room that used to occupy both her parents. For some odd reason, Sydney had refused to sell the house that she had lived in with Vaughn for a year, eighteen months, three weeks, and four days to be more exact.  
  
Cory jumped onto Sydney's bed and settled down on top of the mountain of pillows. Sydney smiled and folded down the covers. Cory complied with the silent order and snuggled down under the covers, a throw pillow clutched tightly in her hands. Sydney slipped into the bed next to her daughter and with a last glance at the alarm clock by her bed, noting that it was nearing 4:30 in the morning, and let sleep claim her again. This time she didn't dream.  
  
()  
  
_Knock, knock, knock_  
  
Sydney groaned and opened her eyes. With a quick glance at the still sleeping Cory and at her clock, noting that it was now almost 8:00 in the morning, Sydney slipped soundlessly out of the bed. She glanced at Cory again, just to be sure that she was sleeping. Then satisfied that her daughter was out like a light, Sydney stumbled down the hallway and to the front door.  
  
"Dad?" She asked, blinking a couple times to try and convince her sleep fogged mind that her dad was standing at her front door at 8 in the morning. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Agent Weiss told me what happened yesterday and I wanted to come by and check you and my granddaughter. Is that okay?" Jack answered in his usual I'm-Jack-Bristow-mess-with-me-and-you-die-but-I-still-love-you-Sydney voice.  
  
Sydney wanted to smile but wisely kept her smile hidden. "Yeah, Dad, that's fine. It's just that it's...eight...in the morning."  
  
"I don't sleep in, you know that."  
  
Sydney nodded, "Yeah, I know." She moved away from the door, "Do you want to come in? I could make some coffee."  
  
Jack nodded briefly, like always, "Sure."  
  
Sydney left the doorway, meaning "come in and make yourself comfortable" and headed into the kitchen. Jack, used to his daughter's lack of manners towards him, followed her inside, closed the front door and joined Sydney in the kitchen. "Caffeinated or decaf?" Sydney asked, holding up two bags of coffee beans.  
  
"Caffeinated." Jack answered.  
  
"Thank God, I need caffeine and I hate making two different pots of coffee." Sydney said, dropping the decaf bag on the counter and proceeding to make the coffee. "So how are you?"  
  
"Fine." Just like Jack Bristow. Never say more than one word unless necessary. "You?"  
  
"Okay, if you take out what happened yesterday." Sydney answered.  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
"I was so scared. I thought she had been kidnapped by someone that I had pissed off years ago before I left the CIA and they taking revenge on me by taking my daughter." Sydney admitted, tapping her fingers on the counter, impatiently waiting for her coffee. "I hate that feeling."  
  
Jack studied her for a moment, "There's something else."  
  
She turned her head sharply towards him, surprised that he had seen through her half-truth, "Yes."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Did you know that the CIA has found traces of Vaughn?" No more Michael. Not after what he did. It was Vaughn.  
  
Jack nodded. He still worked with the CIA after all, "Yes."  
  
"I thought it was him. I thought he took her and I would never see her again. Dad, I honestly thought that her father had kidnapped her and that he would keep her from me forever." Sydney stopped and covered her mouth with her hand in a very Sydney-like move. She always did that when she was trying to keep from crying. Jack stayed silent until she removed her hand and continued talking, "And that thought scared me. I never thought of that possibility before but now that I have, I can't get it to leave me alone. And then with last night..." She trailed off, noticing that they coffee was ready.  
  
"Last night?"  
  
"Cory had this dream, that someone was trying to kidnap her and she was yelling for me to come and help her and at long last she and the man heard me running down the hall and the man escaped out the window." She stopped, shaking her head slightly, pouring the coffee into two mugs and handing one to Jack. "And I was asleep when I heard her yelling for me and of course I ran to her room. That was when she told me about her dream and I noticed that her window was open. And I could have sworn that I closed it last night."  
  
"And you think that her dream wasn't actually a dream?" Jack asked the obvious.  
  
Sydney nodded and took a small sip of her coffee, "Yes. Am I just being paranoid or do you think that he was really in her room last night?"  
  
"It's possible." The truth but not the answer Sydney wanted to hear, so Jack continued, "But in all likelihood, it was in fact a bad dream and the window could have opened itself or you thought you closed it when you didn't."  
  
"Maybe," Sydney gulped at her coffee, trying to forget her fears in the caffeine. It wasn't working. "What do you think?"  
  
"About Vaughn actually coming back?" Sydney nodded. "I think he wouldn't be that stupid. He probably knows that you dislike him greatly and would kill him before taking him back."  
  
Sydney smiled and hastily hugged her dad, "Thanks Dad. I needed that."  
  
"Grandpa!" Cory yelled, running full force into Jack.  
  
Jack smiled but didn't pick her up. He might be in good shape for his age but picking up a six year old was not something he did everyday, "Hey, Cory. How are you?"

Cory shrugged, her arms still wrapped around his leg, "I'm okay. Did Mommy tell you what happened yesterday?"  
  
"Yes, she did and I'm assuming you know not to hide from your mommy again."

Cory nodded, "Yes, I promised Mommy never to do that again." Unsatisfied with the sudden seriousness of the conversation, she quickly changed the subject, "Can we go to the zoo? Please?" Cory begged, complete with puppy dog eyes.  
  
"It's up to Mommy," Jack answered.  
  
Cory turned her attention to Sydney and jutted out her chin a little, "Please, Mommy. Can we?"  
  
Sydney laughed, "Alright, since it's a Saturday anyway. Now go get dressed, cause there's no way you're going to the zoo in your pajamas."  
  
"Thank you Mommy!" Cory cried, abandoning her grandpa's leg for Sydney's and then running into her room.

()

_"Vaughn, do you want kids?" Sydney asked, while the pair strolled lazily in the zoo. They had been bored and decided to go to the zoo just for the heck of it. _

_Vaughn smiled and laughed lightly, "Of course I want kids. I want lots and lots of little Sydneys running around." _

_Sydney laughed as well, wrapping her arms around his waist. She smiled when she caught a small glimpse of the diamond engagement ring on her finger. "And of course, there will be lots and lots of little Michaels running around with the little Sydneys."_

_Vaughn put his arm around her shoulder before responding, "Did you say, 'little Michaels'?" Sydney nodded, confused as to why he would ask a question like that. "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! She calls me Michael!" Vaughn yelled, alerting some people's curiosity. _

_Sydney laughed, embarrassed and starting to blush, "Do you have you yell it so loudly?"_

_"Hey, if you're ever going to be Mrs. Vaughn, you're going to have to take me and my weird quirks." Vaughn defended. _

_"As long as you take me and mine," Sydney responded._

_"Deal." _

_"Deal."_

_"Okay, come on, let's go see the elephants," Vaughn said, excitedly, and taking off for the elephant exhibit, pulling her along for the ride._

()  
  
"Come on, I wanna see the elephants." Cory pulled on Sydney's arm towards the elephant exhibit.  
  
In fear that Cory would eventually pull off her arm, Sydney pried Cory's fingers off. "How about you go see the elephants up close and Grandpa and I will stay back here, okay?"  
  
"Okay," Cory agreed, readily.  
  
"And no disappearing acts." Sydney added.  
  
"I won't." Cory promised over her shoulder, pushing past the people to get right next to the wall surrounding the elephant exhibit to see the show the trainers were putting on with the elephants.  
  
Sydney kept her eyes on Cory, when she said to Jack, "We would see him if he was here, wouldn't we?"  
  
"It's hard to say," Jack answered, keeping an eye on Cory as well. One thing you couldn't say about Jack Bristow was that he didn't care for his family.  
  
"Dad," Sydney said, telling him that wasn't the answer she needed to hear.  
  
"I know, I know. It's unlikely that he's even the United States."  
  
"I know," Sydney took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "But it doesn't stop me from thinking he is."  
  
"Maybe you should leave."  
  
Sydney tore her eyes away from Cory to stare at her father, "What?"  
  
"I mean, maybe you should take Cory and go take a vacation somewhere. You know, get away from L.A. and relax, just the two of you. You don't have any classes right now as it is." Sydney taught English Lit at UCLA. Her constant killing herself over papers instead of just accepting that she would be an agent forever had paid off and had helped her get a good paying job when she quit the CIA after she married Vaughn.  
  
Sydney nodded, turning her gaze back to her daughter. A vacation might be what she needs to clear her mind and get it off the topic of Vaughn kidnapping Cory. "Yeah, I think we could do that. Claire's been begging me to visit with Cory, anyway. And Cory has yet to visit France." Claire Vaughn, Vaughn's mother, had flown in from France several times but for some reason, Sydney and Cory had yet to fly out to her.  
  
"I'll arrange a flight for you. A plane will be ready whenever you want it."  
  
Sydney smiled and hugged her dad, "Thanks Dad."  
  
"You're welcome, Sydney."  
  
"Mommy! Grandpa! Did you see the elephants?!" Cory cried, making her way back through the crowd to Sydney and Jack.  
  
Sydney smiled and stepped forward to meet Cory. Cory happily jumped into Sydney's arms and let her pick her up, "Yes, I did."  
  
"Can I get an elephant?" Cory asked, resting her head on Sydney's shoulder. Unlike Jack, Sydney was able to carry around a six-year-old girl and probably beat up a thirty-year-old man at the same time. Which might come in handy sometime.  
  
Sydney laughed, "No, you cannot get an elephant. Where would we keep it?"  
  
"In the backyard," Cory answered, immediately.  
  
"Oh, I see you've been thinking about this."  
  
"Maybe," Cory answered with a giggle.  
  
"Well, I'll think about the elephant. But for now, how would you like to go to France and visit Grandmere?" Sydney asked.  
  
Cory's eyes widened, "Really?" Sydney laughed and nodded. "I wanna go!" Cory yelled.  
  
"I guess that settles it."

* * *

A/N: Holy cow! Hey look my language is better. Yay me. Okay, enough with that subject, I just want to thank you all for my fantabulistico reviews. And if you don't know what fantabulistico means, it means fantastic. I just have to be wierd and make up a new version of the word. hehe. 

**kay10197**- Yay, newcomers are like always welcome. It's just gonna keep on getting more interesting. Can't say more, cause that would be giving stuff away.

**Willow Black**- You missed 30 minutes of it? That sucks, cause that movie rules! Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with that movie. And the Princess Bride. That is a good movie too.

**Sydney Bristow**- I hope you have better patience than I do. Cause I really suck at waiting for things and tend to start seeing things. It's kind of scary, if you know what I mean.

**hannahbannah**- More newpeople. I love newpeople. It tells me that people are finding me humble fic and liking it. Which is cool and I just call it me humble fic. lol, I am in a very weird mood.

**neptunestar**- lol, sorry but I like how you put that. "what the hell posessed Vaughn to leave Sydney when she was six months pregnant with his child!". It was funny. I laughed. My friend who read that laughed. And all I'm going to say is, you're just going to have to wait and see.

**stargirl591**- Are you a newcomer? I think you are. I wouldn't know. My memory sucks. Like really badly. Anyway, thanks, updating as fast as I can.

**wicked-sista**- ::gasp:: A Sarkney(no offense) likes me S/V story? That is so cool. Like super duper cool and don't ask me why I said super duper. I just did. hehe.

**adpi24**- I have many things "up my sleeve" though I'm not wearing sleeves cause it's summer where I'm at and like ninety degrees. It would be very stupid of me to wear long sleeves. Very stupid indeed.

**Julia**- Yay, you like my flashbacks. I don't know if this helps but there will be more in future chapters, if I can ever get them written. Right now I have a notebook of short notes and no actual chapter because, well I don't know why.

**ProvidenceSea**- Yay, another newperson. Sorry, I've been doing this for a while. I like to point out the new people I notice. So yeah, anyway, I like that you called it interesting. I like that a lot.

**TheUptownGirl**- I think that you are the first person to say that they like Cory. I like her too. Sydney's always been a strong woman and I didn't think that making her weak would have been a smart idea. No, it would not. And I think that you reviewed another one of my stories. Can't remember which though, just one of them.

**Charmed-angel4**- Well, have no fear, I'm just going to keep making him sound like a jerk. Why? Because it's fun. Is that a reason? No. There are other reasons for doing so, I just don't want to type them all out because I'm lazy and I'm sure that you would rather have my update than a bunch of reasons why I want to make Vaughn sound like a jerk. lol, I like that. Stalkergirl. hehe, very funny. Good to know that you'll read another of my fics if I post another.

**olivia**- I laughed when I read your review. I know that it's not funny but yeah, I would be bitter too if my husband left me when I was six months pregnant. Most people would be bitter. Lots of people would be bitter. lol. Sorry, it's not funny, but yeah, that's just what was going through my mind when I read that. And I promise to make her less bitter. It just might take a little bit.

**Ren201**- Ha, more newpeople. Okay now that I'm down with that, yeah, you're right every writer protrays characters differently. I am obviously one of them, cause Vaughn wouldn't leave Syd like that on the show, unless he had a really good reason, which he does, by the way, I might add. It just might take a bit to have his reasons become known to the world.

**baby le**- Right now, that's when the new chapter's out but I think you can figure that out because, well you're reading this. Yay, you said "bravo" i like that word. I can't really explain why. I just do. :) and new person! lol, don't ask unless you really want to know.

**fa-sai**- He does have a good reason. I think. It's a good reason in my mind. But that could mean nothing in other people's, you know what I mean? new person! okay, I only do that once. I'm done now.

**erin**- Yeah, well, if you called the flashback where Vaughn left Syd a sweet one, I would be wondering what's going on in your head. more flashbacks are coming. promise!

**ninjaturtle**- Now I know your new and that's cool. I want to visit Austrailia sometime. I really, really do. You're the first person to comment on Cory's name or at least her full name anyway. I like that name too and most of the time I mess with names so their spelled differently.

**Grouchy**- Yes, that is a way to end the chapter, a very cliff hangery one if I do say so myself. lol. don't ask. I am in such a weird mood, it's not even funny.


	4. Packing

**A/N:** Okay, so I've gotten a lot of questions as to where the hell Vaughn is already. I can say this, he is coming. Give me like two maybe three chapters(not including this one) and you will have your Spy!Daddy. Until then be happy with him in flashbacks and the very subtle hints that he is already there.

Also, some of you were wondering why I was trying to make you hate Vaughn. Rest assured, that is not my intention. I don't want you to hate him. I don't hate him (really, I don't, I'm like obsessed with him). I'm just trying to give everyone insight to how Sydney feels. I can stop if y'all want. I just think it adds to the story to have them.

And this chapter probably would have been up yesterday or earlier today if the stupid servers hadn't crashed. I got the screwy end of the stick and was kept out for the longest time.

* * *

"Cory, are you packing like I told you to?" Sydney asked, walking down the hall towards Cory's room.  
  
Cory jumped off her bed and hastily hid the photo she had been looking at under her pillow when she heard Sydney coming towards her room. "Of course I am."  
  
"Cory," Sydney said, appearing in the doorway, "What did I say about lying?"  
  
"Do it?" Cory answered.  
  
Sydney laughed, "No, I didn't tell you to lie, you silly goose." Cory smiled at her mother's tease and started throwing her clothes from her bed into the open suitcase. Sydney smiled, and grabbed Cory's hands, gently stopping her. "How about we fold them?" Cory nodded and Sydney proceeded to empty the suitcase and then help Cory fold her clothes and set them in the suitcase nicely.  
  
After a few minutes of silent mother/daughter time, Sydney noticed a frame poking out from under Cory's pillow. She leaned over and gently uncovered the photo and picking it up. "Where'd you find this?" She asked.  
  
Cory looked down sheepishly, "In the living room. Please don't be mad, Mommy. I just wanted to look at it."  
  
Sydney smiled, her eyes tearing slightly, "No, sweetie, I'm not mad. You can look at it all you want." She moved over to Cory's dresser and placed the framed photo of her and Vaughn on their wedding day on top the dresser.  
  
"Tell me about you and Daddy's wedding day," Cory requested, glancing at the photo while making an attempt to fold her clothes with one on them.  
  
"Okay," Sydney took a deep breath. "I remember the sun shining. It was the clearest day in L.A. I had ever seen. And I was a mess, literally shaking..."  
  
_"Syd, calm down," Francie said, gently with a wide smile.  
  
"What if something goes wrong? What if the flowers don't arrive on time? Or the ring boy trips halfway down the aisle..."  
  
"That would be actually pretty funny," Francie commented.  
  
Sydney thought about it and nodded, "Yeah, okay, so the ring boy tripping would be funny, centerpiece-less tables would not be."  
  
Francie grabbed Sydney's hands, trying to calm her down, "Syd, look at me." Sydney did as she was told, "Everything is going to go great. The flowers will be here. The caterer will have dinner ready promptly at seven, all the guests are here and waiting for you, your dad's waiting outside to walk you down the aisle to your very-soon-to-be husband. You're getting married."  
  
"I'm getting married." Sydney repeated, with a wide smile, her eyes tearing up again. She reached up a hand with Francie's hand still latched on and wiped at her eyes with the handkerchief in her hand, "God, if I don't stop crying, I'm going to look awful."  
  
Francie laughed lightly, "Honestly, I don't think it would matter to Michael if you were wearing dirty, ripped jeans and a tube top and hadn't brushed your hair in like a week, he's still say you were beautiful."  
  
Sydney laughed, "I think he would care just a little bit. Considering I, with some help from his mother, forced him to wear a tux."  
  
"Okay, so maybe he would grudge you the tux thing but he would definitely forget about it during the honeymoon."  
  
Sydney made a noise that sounded something like "uh" and swatted Francie's arm, "Francie."  
  
Francie shrugged, like she was innocent, "What? He would."  
  
A knock came from the door and Jack poked his head in, "Sydney, are you ready yet?"  
  
Sydney gave Francie a look to stay quiet and looked to her dad, "Yeah, just a second." Jack nodded and closed the door. "I'm getting married." Sydney repeated.  
  
Francie hugged her, "You're getting married." Then Francie released her and gave her a little push towards the door, "Now go get him, you're the almighty Sydney Bristow."  
  
Sydney laughed and shook her head, opening the door and holding it open. Francie got the message and went out the door to take her place in the wedding march, "And be nice to Eric," Sydney hissed.  
  
"I will," Francie whispered back, latching on to Weiss's arm as he was the best man. And with her being the maid-of-honor, they started the wedding march. Sydney could see Will's jealous expression and bit her tongue to keep from laughing.  
  
Sydney took the arm offered to her by Jack and started her walk down the aisle. She looked up at him, "Dad?"  
  
Jack looked down at her, "Yes, Sydney?"  
  
"Do I have your blessing?" Sydney asked, quietly.  
  
Jack glanced at the head of the church towards a very anxious looking Vaughn and then back at Sydney. He nodded briefly, "Of course."  
  
Sydney smiled and squeezed his arm a little as her thanks before finally glancing to the head of the church. Her eyes meet Vaughn's and she could feel the breath slowly leaving her lungs.  
  
After what seemed like an eternity, Sydney and Jack reached the alter where the rest of the wedding party waited. The minister spoke up and said, "Who gives this woman to this man?"  
  
"We do," Jack, Francie, Weiss, and Will answered at the same time, causing a ripple of laughter through the church.  
  
Vaughn then stepped forward to take Sydney from Jack but Jack stopped him and whispered, "Hurt her and I hurt you."  
  
Vaughn swallowed hard and nodded, solemnly, before mumbling a "yes, sir."  
  
While Sydney glared at Jack lightly, "I heard that, you know." Jack seemed ashamed of himself for like a second, before taking his seat in the front row, ironically directly behind Vaughn.  
  
"Why do I get the feeling he's gonna shoot me right now?" Vaughn whispered in Sydney's ear.  
  
"He won't, at least not in front of so many people," Sydney whispered back._

()  
  
_Knock, knock, knock  
_  
Sydney stopped and looked down at Cory, realizing that they both had stop folding and packing. She reached for the frame and traced it fondly before handing it to Cory, "Here, you look at this and I will go see who is at the door."  
  
"Okay," Cory answered, happily, and sitting down at the bed to look at the photo again.  
  
"And keep packing," Sydney commanded over her shoulder. Cory didn't respond and Sydney shook her head, opening the front door. She immediately smiled, "Hey you guys."  
  
"Hey," Francie exclaimed, giving Sydney a hug before entering the house.  
  
"Hey," Will said, less enthusiastic as Francie but he still gave Sydney a hug as well.  
  
"Thank you guys for doing this for me. I'm just being a little paranoid." Sydney said, closing the door behind Will. She had asked Francie and Will to housesit the house while she and Cory were in France.  
  
Francie looked around, "No prob, Syd. You're place is so much cooler than ours anyway."  
  
"Okay, you know where the kitchen is and eat all you want, as long as you pay for anything you buy. I'm not having you two stock pile my fridge with Twinkies and pork rinds again."  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Will answered.  
  
"Aunt Francie and Uncle Will!" Cory yelled, coming out of her bedroom, the photo still in her hand. "You were at Mommy and Daddy's wedding, what was it like?"  
  
"Your Mommy was the most beautiful bride ever, for one thing," Francie said, kneeling to give the girl a hug.  
  
"Fran, how about you go help her pack and you can tell her all the stories you want as long as they are G rated if you know what I mean." Sydney suggested.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya." Francie answered as Cory grabbed her hand and pulled her into her room.  
  
"So how are things?"  
  
"Fine," Sydney answered simply.  
  
"No special reason for going out of town on a day's notice?" Will asked. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to give up.  
  
"Nope," Sydney said with a shake of her head. And she made it pretty clear that she wasn't going to talk about it.  
  
"Does it have to do with him?"  
  
_Okay, now he's touched a nerve._ Sydney inhaled and paused before letting out her breath slowly, "Will, I want you to drop it. I mean it, leave it alone. Now can I trust you to do that? Or are we going to have another repeat of the SD-6 fiasco we had years ago?"  
  
Will nodded, "Yeah, sure, whatever. I just worry about you, Syd."  
  
"Well don't," She answered, sharper than she had intended, "I'm fine. I can handle this."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"I said I could." She said, firmly. No matter how much time went by, Sydney couldn't stand having a man worry about her when she could take care of herself.  
  
"Alight," Will backed off the subject, not wanting to make her any more pissed than she already was.  
  
Sydney checked her watch for the first time in apparently a long time because her eyes widened and she started going into a packing flurry around the house, "Cory! Hurry up, sweetie! We have to be on that plane in half an hour!"  
  
Cory stomped into the living room, dragging her full suitcase behind her, "I'm ready, Mommy!"  
  
Will laughed at her trying to haul the obviously too heavy suitcase behind her, and went over to take it from her, "How about I take this to the car and you go see what's taking Mommy so long."  
  
Cory's face lit up with a smile, relieved to be rid of the suitcase and she nodded, "Okay." She ran into Sydney's room, and stopped short, noticing Sydney's back to her. Even though she was six, Cory could tell Sydney was crying. "Mommy?" She asked, softly.  
  
Sydney whirled around and smiled in spite of her tears, "Are you ready yet?" She asked in the same hushed tone as Cory. Cory nodded. "Come here, I want to show you something." Cory did as she was told and Sydney knelt down on the ground so she was at eye level with her daughter.  
  
"What is that Mommy?"  
  
Sydney smiled and turned the empty frame over in her hands, "This was the very first Christmas present Daddy gave me..."  
  
_"You don't ever have to apologize for calling me," Vaughn said, standing up and walking the short distance to where she stood so that they were shoulder to shoulder. He set down a gift bag between them before adding, "Speaking of which, I got you something."  
  
Sydney stopped pretending to be looking at the flowers in front of her, "What?" She looked down, "No, you didn't." She said, unbelieving that he would go out of his way to get her a Christmas present.  
  
"I don't know...I just...I was in this little, um, antique place."  
  
Sydney smiled, listening to him struggle with the words, "What were you doing in an antique store?"  
  
He chuckled. "Don't know," He admitted. "Whatever. If you don't like it, just don't tell me."  
  
She laughed, "Okay."  
  
He glanced over at her, "Merry Christmas."  
  
She returned the glance, their eyes meeting for a split second, "Merry Christmas."  
_  
"...He wasn't supposed to give it to me because we were coworkers but he did anyway." Sydney hadn't told Cory that she and Vaughn had worked for the CIA and probably wouldn't until she was at least eighteen.  
  
"Why is there no picture in it?" Cory asked, reaching out to stroke the silver frame, just to get the feel of it.  
  
"I don't know. I had a picture in it a long time ago but I took it out."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Sydney shrugged, "I'm not sure." She wiped at her eyes with her hand and handed the frame to Cory, "Here, I want you to have it. Maybe you can put me and Daddy's wedding picture in it." Cory smiled at first, ecstatic that Sydney would give her something so precious but then her smiled faded. "What's wrong?"  
  
"What if I break it?" Cory asked.  
  
Sydney laughed, "It's silver, I don't think you'll break it. Besides, it's lasted this long in the bottom of my dresser, I think it'll be fine. I trust you to take extra good care of it."  
  
Cory smiled, convinced that what Sydney said was true and hugged her mother, "Thank you Mommy. Can I take it with us to show Grandmere?"  
  
"Of course," Sydney promised. Any evidence of her crying over finding the frame was disappearing at a rapid rate and she felt that Will and Francie that wouldn't ask any questions, so she stood up, "Come on, we have to go, like now."

* * *

**neptunestar**- I'm not patient either! And I just realized that you and me have the same name. My name's Melanie too. That's cool cause I've never met another Melanie, in real life or otherwise. 

**kay10197**- I love elephants too, that's why I used that animal and not some stinky thing like a giraffe or a lion, who needs them, hehe, i'm just joking, those animals are cool too.

**morrisseylover**- I can put in more Jack if you want. Strangely, he wasn't really in this chapter, unless you count the threatening of Vaughn. Somehow, I could see Jack pulling a gun on Vaughn for no apparent reason. Though he didn't do it the story, but it would still be funny.

**baby le**- Yay! more bravo! I told you already that I like that word, so we'll just leave that subject alone for now. Already explained the absense of Spy!Daddy!Vaughn, so yeah.

**Olivia**- I always take people's points of views into account. That's why I love it so much when people give me tips and ideas and point out stuff they like and dont like, so yeah, yours helped like bunches. And I promise to update as religiously as I can. :)

**Illyria04**- Ah! New person! okay, I'm done with that, for now. I'm writing more, here's more for ya, see all that writing up above, that's more. lol, i'm in a weird mood.

**ninjaturtle**- when I was little, I used to ask my parents for an elephant in the backyard, i still do actually, yeah, kinda weird considering I'm fifteen. I already explained it above.

**Natalie**- Okay, not meaning to sound rude, but what does that mean? "it seems like he had a better reason than what you suggest he had to leave his pregnant wife" I'm kinda confused by the sentence, so yeah, could you explain it for me cause I hate being confused.

**Erin**- Maybe he will, maybe he won't. Can't say cause it's a secret. I've had people like my friends ask me if what his reasons are and I refuse to tell anyone. And I would freak, also.

**Miss47**- Thanks, I can say that I hope it's going to be great when he arrives. I really hope it is.

**Ren101**- I think it's supposed to be "more mean" instead of "meaner" but who cares, i like meaner better, way cooler word. and yeah, "prick" pretty much sums up how i'm making Vaughn look, isnt it? So, you noticed that I've got a lot of reviewers? Not many people have. And course, I'm not sharing, I'm greedy. hehe

**Lauryn2**- ooh! dang, you're the only one to call him a "bastard" so far. are we angry towards Vaughn? That's okay, Syd is too, at least in this story.

**TheUptownGirl**- Okay so this confused me, "glad Cory is really wishy washy and immature...Sydney would never have a child like that". um yeah, aren't you kind of contradicting yourself? Sorry, dont seem to sound rude or anything, I just hate being confused.

**Sydney Bristow**- You talk to the fic? That's...different. Though I can't honestly say that I haven't done the same thing. I'm not in school, yet and won't be for another two weeks, thank God!

**wicked-sista**- Yes, it was very scary, if it was real. i'm not telling if it was, not yet anyway.

**dontyousassmemister828**- Gee, thanks, you're one of the few people to comment on Syd and Cory's relationship and that means a lot to me. What can I say? I'm a sap.

**AngelicOne**- Updating as fast as I can, hun, really, I am, unless the stupid servers crash again. that made me mad.

**Sugar-Angel73**- I like Vaughn too, dude, I love him. Like obsessed with him, it's kind of a long story and I dont want to bore you, so yeah, stopping myself. I'm not sure if suspense can kill you but the wait can and you can just blame it on suspense. hehe

**rainluver**- I do have a GOOD explanation, promise. And all the rest of it's explained the in the author's note at the beginning of the chapter.

**Charmed-angel4**- No, you misunderstand me, I'm not trying to make you hate him, but I've already explained all this in the author's note and I really don't want to write it all out again. hehe, bye Stalkergirl! love the voice thing by the way. hehe


	5. In flight

Cory settled deeper into the leather seat holding the silver frame in her hands, now with the picture of Sydney and Vaughn's wedding day in it. She hadn't put it down since Sydney gave it to her except when Sydney had moved the photo from its old frame to the new one but that was it.

Sydney walked back into the small cabin of the private plane after talking to the pilot briefly and sat down on the chair across from Cory. "Do you like it?"

Cory nodded, rapidly, "Love it." She tilted her head to the side a little to get a different look at it. "When are we going to be there?"

Sydney smiled at the very childish question, "About eight hours. You might want to take a nap, sweetie."

"I'm not sleepy." Cory answered, still studying the photo. She reminded Sydney of someone. Someone really familiar. Then she remembered who. Herself.

"..._I'm not tired, okay. I want to know what the hell happened to my husband." Sydney snapped at the rookie agent trying to calm her down by offering a cup of coffee and a donut and yet at the same time telling her to sleep. Sydney refused the refreshments and sleep. Instead she sat curled up on the overstuffed chair in the living room, clutching a picture of her and Vaughn at the park or some outdoor place. "Tell me what the hell happened to my husband."_

_The agent looked at her sympathetically, "We don't know yet. We're still trying to figure that out." She wanted to punch him. The agent got the idea that she didn't want to talk to him –go figure- and walked off to aide somehow in the CIA's search of the Vaughn house. So far, they turned up nothing. No encrypted note. No signs of forced entry. No signs of a struggle. It really looked like he had just left. Of his own free will. _

_Sydney laid her head down against the back of the chair in a weird angle and went over the night before over and over. Nothing he did gave her any reason that he was trying to tell her something. They had dinner, another talk about if the baby was a boy or a girl and what they should name it, watched TV for a few hours before she started to nod off and he turned off the TV and helped her back to bed where she fell asleep with him next to her. Then, he was gone. In the blink of an eye. Gone. _

_Sydney heard a new angry sounding voice and an agent trying to reason with the owner of the voice to no avail and picked up her head. It was who she thought it was. Jack. _

_Getting up from the chair at a surprising rate for someone as pregnant as her, Sydney bolted across the room as fast as she could and caught Jack up in a desperate hug. Her tears started flowing again as she clung to her father for support, "Daddy," She sobbed, "Please say you found something. Anything."_

_Jack shook his head, and answered in a low voice, "Nothing, yet." The "yet" was added for Sydney's sake, though it did little to help her hysterical condition. _

_Sydney sank slowly to the ground where she seemed to be spending a lot of time lately, and Jack kneeled down next to her. "What happened?" She asked him. "What the hell happened to him? Why did he leave? Why? All I want is why?" _

_Jack wrapped his arms around her sobbing frame as best he could and tried to comfort her like he had when she was little and had a nightmare, before Laura/Irina had disappeared. "I'll find why, Sydney. I promise." _

"_Oh my God, Sydney, darling," In a flash, Vaughn's mother was at Sydney's side, sitting shamelessly like her daughter-in-law on the ground. She had been called about her son's disappearance and had taken the first flight out to L.A. _

_Sydney turned from Jack for support to Claire Vaughn and cried into the older woman's shoulder, "Thank you for coming." She managed to say. _

"_It's nothing, dear." Claire reassured. She studied Sydney for a moment before asking, "Have you eaten anything today?" Sydney shook her head, no. Claire sighed, it was already past noon and Sydney needed to eat, that much was common sense. "Come on, you need to eat something." Sydney shook her head again. "Sydney, you need to eat. You need to be strong, for your baby." Sydney nodded and Claire rushed off to find something for her to eat._

"Mrs. Vaughn?"

Sydney opened her eyes, half glad to be rid of the memory and looked to the pilot, who was trying to tell her something, "Yes?"

"We've landed," He told her simply. "Your bags are on the runway."

Sydney smiled and nodded, "Thank you." She turned to Cory, who was still wide awake and clutching the photo in her hands. "Are you coming Cory or are you just going to sit there all day?" Cory nodded and jumped off the seat. Sydney smiled and stood up a little more gracefully than Cory, then took her hand and led her off the plane.

The second both their feet set place upon solid ground, the small private plane started rolling to another end of the runway. _Just like the CIA, never wait for anything_, Sydney mused while wondering why she had agreed to using a CIA plane.

Cory tugged on Sydney's hand, obviously impatient to go see France and all its glory instead of the airport. Sydney tugged back and bent down to gather their things with her one hand. Realizing that she couldn't carry two suitcases and a few smaller bags with one hand, Sydney released Cory's hand to get the rest of their luggage. She was reluctant to do so, let go of Cory that is, because she had the feeling that _he_ was somewhere close.

The two girls made their way inside the airport instead of standing on the runway all day and once inside, Sydney stopped and started to look for Claire, who said she was going to meet them there. Just when Sydney was going to call a cab, Cory cried out, "Look, Mommy, it's Daddy!"

Sydney followed her daughter's finger towards the man Cory pointed to. She could hear her heart pounding in her head, and suddenly the past six years, one month, and eleven days since Cory was born past by Sydney's eyes. Everything from when she first held her to Cory's first steps to her first words to her first ice cream cone to the first time she met her Grandmere to her first day at kindergarten. Then everything she learned from her days as a spy came to mind. She tried to analyze the best escape route and if necessary, the best way to kick that son a bitch's ass without completely scaring Cory and with as little force as necessary.

But all of her worrying was for nothing. The man Cory pointed to wasn't Vaughn. Sure, they had the same hair but whoever that man was did not have green eyes, one of Vaughn's most prominent features, the same ones that Cory had inherited. Sydney sighed and tried to force a smile, "Cory, sweetie that's not Daddy."

"Yes, it is," Cory insisted, wagging her finger around more.

Sydney shook her head softly, "No, it's not. Look at the frame in your hand, sweetie, that's not Daddy."

Cory glanced down at the frame and realized that she was mistaken, "But it really did look like him."

"I know, sweetie." Sydney answered with a smile. For about two years after Vaughn had disappeared, she thought she had seen him everywhere, at the supermarket, the mall, at school, in the park, once even in a bakery and she actually chased that man down the street and scared the crap out him, whoever he was. She had apologized and was thankful that he didn't call the police on her.

"Sydney! Cory! Over here!" Claire's voice sounded, over the loud chapter of the airport lobby. Sydney instinctively followed the voice to its origin and smiled. Cory did the same and took off at a sprint for her Grandmere. Smiling, Sydney followed and arrived at the pair just as Claire was releasing Cory. "Sydney, dear, you look fantastic."

"Thank you," Sydney said, accepting the offered hug from her mother-in-law. "So do you."

"Nonsense," Claire admonished, then turning back to her granddaughter. "What's that you've got there, Cherie?"

Cory smiled proudly and held up the frame for her Grandmere. "It's Mommy and Daddy's wedding photo."

Claire smiled, "So, it is."

"Grandmere, do you know where Daddy is?"

Sydney was instantly concerned. That was the second time in a week that Cory had asked about her father's whereabouts and usually Cory didn't ask that. She didn't like the answers given to her. Normally, Sydney would be asked that question every six months or so and that was under good circumstances. And now that Cory was starting to question everybody about it, Sydney was worried. Had she seen Vaughn somewhere and now wanted to know why he wasn't with her and Mommy?

Claire thought carefully about it, after glancing quickly in Sydney's direction to find her just as confused. "No, sweetie, I don't." She said at last with a shake of her head. Cory half smiled and glanced at the photo again. "But I do know where a big batch of chocolate chip cookies are," Claire continued.

Cory's eyes lit up and she smiled, "Are they for me?"

"Of course." Claire agreed, reaching for Cory's hand. Cory took it and let her Grandmere lead her towards the car. Sydney followed with their luggage, a wide smile on her face watching the pair.

Claire helped Cory into the backseat then helped Sydney with the luggage. "Is something wrong?"

Sydney stopped, surprised. "No. Why?"

"You seem...different." Claire answered.

Sydney sighed, "I'll tell you about it later." Claire nodded and shut the trunk. Sydney smiled at her briefly before heading towards the passenger side and getting in, Claire doing the same on the driver's side. It wasn't long before she had the car running and drove off in the direction of her countryside home.

They failed to notice the pair of green eyes watching them and then a couple minutes after they drove off, getting into his own car and driving off in the same direction as them.

* * *

A/N: I know, it's short. Kill me after I get enough caffeine in me to defend myself a little. The next chapter will be longer I promise.

Ooh, told ya Spy!Daddy!Vaughn would make an appearance, and it's sooner than I told ya. But then again...who said it was Vaughn? hehe.

**baby le**- lol. it's to know that i have such adoring fans that the second they realize that i have a new chapter, they rush for the update. lol. that made my day. and i hope this chapter didn't disappoint either.

**Ren201**- ah, but...but...but i do need your review! i do! they make me so happy. and i love being happy. happy gives me inspiration to write stories. you want me to happy, right? i love france and the french...ah, such a nice picture. i have no idea what i'm saying anymore, so i shall be quiet now.

**TheUptownGirl**- ah, okay, now it makes more sense. yeah, i'm glad she isn't like that either. little children that are like that annoy me to no end. i had to entertain one like that once and "entertaining" her meant a piggyback ride for the entire afternoon and evening! the girl ate her dinner while on my back! argh, was it annoying!

**rainluver**- i hope you didn't die of curiosity by now. i know it took me awile to update this. i was too freaking tired to write much. do you think i should have a rain scene in this story? i was thinking about doing that and i would love a fellow rain lover's opinion.

**Charmed-angel4**- okay, reread the last line...did you?...that was vaughn...or was it?...it's pretty obvious who it was, i just like messing with people. hehe. see ya soon, hopefully, STALKERGIRL!

**Agent Flamingo**- Thank ya bunches! I like having my stuff called sweet. all warm and fuzzy right now. btw, i love your name. flamingos are so cool! did i spell flamingos right? lol.

**natalie**- hmmm...that's what i'm saying? okay, if that's what it seems like...i never noticed that before...i n t e r e s t i n g.

**kay10197**- yay! you mentioned the frame. not many people did and i love that scene and the scene where he gave it too her. i love s/v fluff. lots and lots of fluff. lol. i'm okay...i think.

**Ellie C**.- I know how you feel. I'm impatient too and I LOVE S/V!!! so much i'm considering blackmailing JJ into making them get back together in the first episode...i didn't say that btw...shh...and did you see the last line!?! that was vaughn...or was it? lol. i think you know who it was.

**neptunestar**- i don't think he's not the vaughn we all know and love...we'll just have to wait and see won't we?...lol...i know...i'm mean.

**Olivia**- i love writing these responses for that very reason. i like to let my readers know that i do appreciate their reviews and now i feel special cause you called me fantastic. you get a hug. ::hug:: we need smilies on this site. lol.

**wicked-sista**- yay! you mentioned the flashbacks! i suppose that means keep going with them? cause i love them and would like die if i had to stop with them. i thought the comment at the end of the wedding would be funny. good old me...gotta put humor in _everything_. lol.


	6. Oh my God

A/N: Changing up some things and when you see _474747_ that means the same as () did.

* * *

Sydney and Cory had just stepped out of the car when a older brunette woman came flying out of Claire's house, immediately going for her great niece. Aunt Trish. Sydney laughed, the memory of when Vaughn first told her about his aunt, echoing in her mind. 

"_I've... I've got this aunt. Um, Aunt Trish. She's the insane one in the family. She, uh, speaks to the dead, she does the readings, she's a crop circle worshipper..."_

That was the first time he ever really mentioned his family to her. And now, here she was, in France with his family and without him. The picture didn't make a lot of sense.

Aunt Trish turned from Cory to Sydney, embracing her warmly. "I've missed you, Sydney."

"I missed you, too." Sydney replied, stepping out of her aunt-in-law's -if that makes any sense- arms.

Trish offered to entertain Cory. Which meant telling her stories about "freaky deaky" stuff, which left Sydney and Clair to talk. For some reason, Sydney still felt intimidated by her mother-in-law. She couldn't say if it was because she was Vaughn, the-man-she-loved's mother or if it was because she was Vaughn, the-man-that-left-her's mother. Claire offered to make tea to ease some of the tension.

"How's Cory's school work going?" Claire asked, avoiding the subject of her son for the moment.

Sydney smiled, "Fine, really good, actually. Her teacher says she's never seen a little girl so independent as Cory." Claire chuckled, retrieving two mugs from the cupboard, "And I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, she's able to take care of herself in some respects and two, I know that she's not going to need me much longer and I want my little girl forever." Sydney smiled at her motherly instincts.

Claire nodded, "I know what you mean. The second Michael told me that he was moving back to the States, I knew he wasn't going to need me anymore." Sydney was silent at the mention of Vaughn so Claire added, "I'm sorry, Sydney, I shouldn't have..."

Sydney interrupted her, "It's fine, really. It's been six years, seven months, and eleven days since I last saw him and it's taken me this long to even begin to accept that there is every possibility of him not coming back."

Claire set a mug of hot tea in front of her and sat in the chair next to her at the small table in the kitchen. "I know. I still half expect his father to come waltzing in the door and it's been...over thirty years now." Sydney nodded and dropped her gaze to her tea. "What's bothering you, Sydney?"

"I think he was in her room." Sydney said quietly.

"Michael?" Sydney nodded. "In Cory's room?" Another nod. "How?"

Sydney recounted the events of the night two days earlier. When she finished, she went back to intently studying her tea, still having yet to drink any of it.

"Do you think he followed you to France?"

Sydney let out a slow breath, "God, I hope not." She reached up and rubbed at her head. "Do you have an aspirin? My head is killing me."

Clair nodded and stood up to retrieve the medicine, "It's the worrying, you know. It gives you a headache."

"I know," Sydney sighed, "But I can't stop."

"I know," Claire answered, setting a bottle of aspirin in front of Sydney and reclaiming her chair. Sydney smiled her thanks and reached for the bottle. "You'll wear yourself into the ground worrying constantly about something that might happen." Claire said, brushing Sydney's hair out of her eyes in a motherly gesture. Sydney couldn't help but think that her own mother had never done such a simple thing for her. "You need a break."

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Sydney asked, with a laugh. She popped the aspirin into her mouth and finally took a drink of her tea to help it down.

"It's a start but not what I'm talking about. You need a break...from motherhood." Sydney gave her a quizzical look so she continued, "Take the day off tomorrow. Go shopping, see the sights, get your nails done, eat some bread." Sydney smiled at the last comment. Claire knew that Sydney adored French bread. "Trish and I will watch Cory."

Sydney shook her head, "I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking, I'm offering and I'm not taking no for an answer. You are taking the day off tomorrow and that's final."

"Yes, Madam." Sydney answered, teasingly causing a laugh from Claire.

_474747_

"_What if she doesn't like me?" Sydney questioned again, peering out of the windshield at the house growing ever closer. _

_Vaughn laughed at her, again, "She'll love you."_

"_How can you be so sure?"_

"_Well," Vaughn started, his smile growing, "For one, you're coming to visit her in France, her native homeland, and she loves everyone in France."_

"_Gee, that's not helpful at all." Sydney answered. _

_Vaughn laughed so she punched him in the arm, "Ouh, that hurt."_

"_Good," Sydney answered, playfully. Vaughn pulled the car to stop outside his mother's home and Sydney's smile faded, "Seriously, Vaughn, I cannot do this."_

"_Seriously, yes you can..." He shut off the engine and leaned over to kiss her reassuringly, "And it wouldn't hurt to call me Michael every once in a while." Sydney gave him a glare so he shrugged, "Or whatever you feel like calling me." Sydney smiled and kissed him again. _

_Vaughn reached over and opened the door and his side of the car and stepped out, Sydney joining him after a couple of seconds. He smiled at her and pulled her into a hug, silently reassuring her that she would be fine. _

_Claire came out to meet them before they had the chance to take two steps towards the door. Of course, she immediately went to her son, pulling him away from Sydney and into her arms, unintentionally making Sydney feel alone. _

"_Maman, this is Sydney, my fiancé," Vaughn said proudly, turning his mother's attention from him to Sydney. Claire smiled proudly and hugged Sydney, eliciting a surprised look from Sydney and a bemused look from Vaughn. _

"_It's so good to finally meet the girl that Vaughn has been talking about non stop for two years." Claire gushed. _

_Sydney smiled, knowingly at Vaughn, "Oh really, non stop huh?" Vaughn grinned sheepishly. _

_Claire nodded, "Goodness, yes, it was a minor miracle to get him to talk about someone or something besides you, dear." _

"_Alright then, I'm going to show Sydney around the house, now. When's dinner?" Vaughn said, putting a stop to the conversation that would only lead to his embarrassment. _

"_An hour," Claire answered, smiling at her son. _

"_Okay, we'll be there." Vaughn answered, taking Sydney by the hand and pulling her into the house where he spent his childhood. He started by showing her the entire downstairs before pulling her upstairs by the hand like a giddy little child. _

"_Was this your room?" Sydney asked, stopping outside of an open door. _

_Vaughn nodded, "Yeah, what tipped you off?"_

_Sydney pointed to a little sign on the door that said 'Michael's room', "I am a spy you know."_

"_Super spy," Vaughn corrected lightly, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Super spy Sydney." He murmured, gently pushing her into his childhood room, and placing a soft kiss on her neck. Sydney laughed and let him guide her into the room. _

"_And super spy Vaughn." She said, softly. _

"_Nah...just...regular...spy...Vaughn..." Vaughn said just as soft between his lips' assault on her neck. She giggled when he hit a sensitive spot and he went back to kiss it again, just to tease her. _

"_Vaughn..."_

"_Hmmmm," was all he responded while his hands started to get restless and draw little circles in her belly. _

"_Stop." She said firmly._

"_Nuh-uh," Vaughn responded, pulling her closer to him and kissing her neck more firmly._

"_What?" Sydney questioned, "Vaughn, I'm not having sex with you in your mother's home."_

"_Why not?" He asked like it was the most natural thing in the world. He stopped kissing her neck and rested his head on her shoulder. _

"_You're kidding me, right?" Vaughn shook his head. "Come on Vaughn, I want to make a good impression with your mother."_

"_And I want you too. I love you so much and I want her to love you, too."_

"_And how is us doing it in your old room, going to make her love me?" Sydney asked, wondering what exactly she had agreed to marry. _

"_She'll know that you make me happy in many ways." Vaughn responded, lightly. _

_Sydney realized that he was kidding her, testing her patience and she shook her head incredulously, "I can't believe you!" She exclaimed turning around and hitting him in the arm. "You're mean."_

"_And you hit hard." Vaughn joked. _

"_Well, you deserve it." She answered. _

_474747_

The last light in the house went out and he leaned back in his seat, shaking off the memory. _That was a long time ago_. It was now just after midnight, too late to knock on the door. Not that that would be a good idea, anyway. He had to do this carefully. He couldn't just show up after six and half years, say 'Honey, I'm home' and expect a _good _reaction. Not that stalking her and their child was any better of an option but it did involve less pain on his part. Sometimes it was just better to observe life from a distance. Sometimes life was better off without you. He knew that she probably better off without him but it killed him to stay away any longer. He just couldn't do that.

His cell phone on the seat next to him started to ring and he answered it after the seventh ring. "I said I was out." The voice on the other end of the line said something and he frowned, slightly, "I don't care. I'm out. I told you that. It's over. Done. Finis. That's it." The voice said something else and his frown disappeared, "Yeah, sure, I'll tell her. Goodbye." He hung up the phone and threw it onto the seat.

He watched the dark house for a few minutes longer before he revved up the engine and drove off. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Again.

_474747_

After saying a drawn out goodbye to Cory, telling her to behave for her Grandmere and Great Aunt, Sydney took Claire's car and headed towards the nearby town five miles away. She had no idea what she was going to do. Shopping was an option, she supposed, but there wasn't anything she really needed. Any local sight to be seen she had already seen. Getting her nails done didn't really seem appealing. But the idea of French bread did.

Smiling to herself, Sydney parked the car on a side street and decided to stroll along the streets until she came across a vendor. _Maybe Claire was right, just taking a day off does help_.

She turned a corner and her heart literally stopped beating. There he was, not even three feet away from her, leaning against the wall of the building next to her. Just casually leaning there like he hadn't been missing for over six years, like he hadn't left without a word, like he hadn't let her and their child down.

His disguise, if that, made no impact to hide his identity. She wasn't even sure if it was meant to be a disguise. Just sunglasses -she was pretty sure they were the same sunglasses that he owned back when they first met- couldn't be classified as a disguise.

"_You know any jokes? 'Cause I could use one." Sydney said, sitting down next to Vaughn on the roof top of a building, their latest place to meet._

"_This grasshopper walks into a bar and the bartender says, 'Hey, we have a drink named after you!' And the grasshopper says-"_

_Sydney interrupted him, "You have a drink named Doug?"_

"_Well, I was going to use Phil." Vaughn explained, smiling._

"_Well, Phil is certainly no funnier than Doug." Sydney answered._

"_No, I know, I'm sorry. It's a non-humorous, uh..." His sentence dropped off in the middle as she burst into giggles and he started laughing as well_.

She had no idea why she was reminded of that day years ago. Maybe it was the sunglasses. He was wearing those exact sunglasses that day. But other than the sunglasses, he made no attempt to conceal who he was. Like he was taunting her with a ghost of the past.

"Oh...my...God..." Sydney whispered.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so there are two reasons why y'all are going to hate me. One, I left this chapter at a very cliffhangery part. (is cliffhangery a word? lol) And second, unfortunately school has started again and for me that means that I need to take a break and step back from the fanfiction world and get reorganized. In other words, that means that I'm taking a hiatus for at least a week, quite possibly two and maybe even three. I know it sucks but I can't screw up my classes this year because of fanfiction. You can be mad, that's okay but I'm not changing my mind. When I come back, I will have a new chapters and most likely new stories. So, see y'all soon. And thanks in advance for your reviews, they really keep me inspired. 

**Rach5**- I have the sinking feeling that you're going to hate me even more after this chapter. lol.

**kay10197**- In the next chapter, I'm hoping is when you find out why Vaughn left. I say 'i'm hoping' because i have no idea. i have yet to write any of the chapter. lol. i dont know why i find that funny.

**baby le**- lo. you rushed again? that's great! i love that! it makes me feel all special and loved and happy and about a million other things that i am too lazy to type out. lol.

**Grouchy**- It does seem that way, doesn't it? After this chapter, it seems even more so, doesn't it?

**ProvidenceSea**- lol...you called me evil but a good evil? lol. that makes absolutely no sense...okay so it does and yeah, i'm taking it as a compliment. being evil isn't bad, it's fun. lol. now that makes no sense.

**Charmed-angel4**- vaughn's identical evil twin Bob? lol. where do you come up with this stuff? cause it's funny. and no, i can say this on the record, it is not vaughn's identical evil twin Bob. at least not in this story. that would make a funny fic, would it not? til next time STALKERGIRL!

**Anonymouse**- Thanks and there's more for ya. lol. i'm in a weird mood.

**Miss47**- yeah, i've heard that it was kinda scary but then again, they didn't see it, so they wouldnt be scared, right? and can i have some of those chocolate chip cookies? i love chocolate chip cookies.

**Natalie**- lol. that's okay. cause i went back and read what i wrote and it does seem like vaughn left cause he was an ass. lol. no wonder people were asking me why i wanted them to hate vaughn. lol

**vaughnbear**- that's the second time that i've heard that. "not the vaughn i know and love" and yeah, so far he really doesnt seem like it, does he? but it does get better, i'm hoping. i'm not sure cause i havent written any of the next chapter.

**TheUptownGirl**- you're a counselor for a bunch of ten year old girls? that has to suck. it sounds like a long summer and i know what you mean about the "wealthier" bratty ones. i hate little children like that. they make me want to smack some sense into them sometimes which doesnt make me sound like a very nice person, does it?

**tiffany**- thanks, i really appriciate it and there will be some syd and vaughn. can't say how much though.

**Ren201**- Okay, i'm sorry for putting the guilt trip on you but i freaked when i read your other review cause i really do love your reviews and they really do make me happy. no more guilt trips, i promise. and i ain't telling if vaughn is good or bad now. that has yet to be decided.

**morrisseylover**- lol. vaughn, the stalker. somehow that has a nice ring to it. i cant explain why.

**rainluver**- thanks for the help and yeah, she is really stubborn but that's what makes syd, syd. and yeah, i try to keep you on your toes. lol.

**Erin**- while stalking her until she dies would be an option, i can't stand the thought of no syd and vaughn so yeah, there he is. wonder what she's gonna do about it cause honestly i have no idea. i love cory too!

**Lil Aussie Alias Chick**- and hopefully in the next chapter you will know why cause at the moment i'm not sure of where i'm going with the next chapter. but i'll figure it out...somehow.

**Agent Flamingo**- thanks for complimenting me on my writing of cory. i really enjoy writing her cause she's so cute and as you put it inquisitive. and vaughn's getting closer...::the sound of the shark attack music playing somewhere in the background:: lol.

**Scary-Girly**- harry potter has green eyes? i had no idea. i knew that vaughn has green eyes (duh, i think everyone knows that) and strangely enough, nothing you said was weird or odd in my opinion but then again, it takes a lot to scare me.

**stargirl591**- thanks. i dont know what much else to say but thanks. so thanks again.

**x-elektra-natchios-x**- i reckon that syd would make a good mother too. she just seems like the motherly type, ya know.

**hannahbannah**- i totally understand about school which is why i'm taking my hiatus. but that's explain above. and thanks.


	7. The Explanation

A/N: Okay, so I am back, as if you couldn't tell by this fantastic new chapter. (seriously though, if you think it is fantastic, let me know. I'm a little nervous about it). So I have bio homework like every freaking night now, but I'm managing because this year I now have a study hall, last year I was stuck with eight straight classes and it sucked. So I am going to continue this fic and see where it goes. I did some planning over my break, so I have an idea now. Tips and ideas are always welcome, hintnudgehinthint. Updates might be a bit spaced out but I'll try my best to get them written and posted.

Hope you like the chapter.

* * *

"Oh...my...God..." Sydney whispered. 

His head turned towards her and the sunglasses came off, revealing his green eyes. That was all the confirmation she needed. It was him. The bastard himself.

Sydney held her head a little higher and tried walking past him, never thinking of the option of just turning around and pretending that she hadn't seen him. She wouldn't give him that triumph. He didn't have the same idea as her.

In a lightning quick move, he grabbed her arm, whipping her around, and pressing her into the wall, trapped there by his body weight. Before she had the chance to react his lips crashed down on hers.

At first, she didn't react. But as the slow poison of his lips sank in, she found herself kissing him back. He tasted just as sweet as she remembered him and he still knew how to tease her. As it set in just exactly what she was doing and what he had done to her and her child, she mustered the strength to push him and his lips off.

He was shocked that she would push him off but quickly recovered, taking a step towards her. Ready for this, she balled her fist and took a swing at him. With his still lightning quick reflexes, he grabbed her by the wrist, preventing her from hitting him. She tried again with her other hand but was met with the same results. Now he held her by both wrists, keeping her from hitting him, something that she desperately wanted to do, had wanted to do for years.

"I see that absence has not made the heart grow fonder," He commented, as she struggled against his grip.

"Don't touch me, you son of a bitch," She hissed, finally yanking her arms free.

"What happened to 'Michael'?" He asked, referring to her inability to remember to call him 'Michael' instead of 'Vaughn' years ago.

"Michael was my husband's name. _You_ are not my husband." Sydney answered, firmly.

"That's not what the papers say."

"Papers can be faked," She stated.

Vaughn stared at her for a moment, trying to grasp what she had just said, "You think I forged our marriage certificate?"

"I honestly don't know what to think, Vaughn." Sydney answered, suddenly remembering the fact that it would have been near impossible for him to do something like that but she was _not_ going to tell him that she realized it. "I thought I knew you. I thought I knew who you were but then I wake up one night and you're just gone."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her words obviously had an effect on him, but he was trying to stay calm. "I see you had the baby." He pointed out, completely changing the subject for fear that if they kept going with _that_ subject she would burst into tears and break his heart at the same time.

She was momentarily stunned by the change of topic but recovered quick enough, "No, I've just been pregnant for the past six years and I'm wearing a hide-the-bulging-belly suit, it's Marshall's latest creation, you know." She answered sarcastically.

He laughed briefly, "You always did have a sense of humor." His laughter dropped to a small smile, "So, is it a girl? A boy? Is it happy, healthy, and content? Do you think that he or she looks like me or you?"

Sydney studied him for a moment, "No."

"No?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No, I don't believe that you went the past six years not knowing."

"I want to hear it from you." Sydney stared; shocked that he would even dare to ask her any form of a favor. "You seemed so excited when you were pregnant that's all. I just want to hear the happy mother's opinion."

Sydney sighed, not completely understanding why she was doing this. "A girl, she's a girl. Yes, she's happy, healthy, and content and I think that she looks like both of us." Her voice was monotone.

"You don't seem very excited," Vaughn commented.

"Do you want me to run around screaming and waving a baton?"

He laughed at her dry words, "Well you were right. I did know that we had a girl. I did know that she was healthy, happy, and content. And I honestly think that she looks more like you, though she does have my eyes. It's the dimples that give her away." He paused, studying her reaction closely. "And how about a name?"

She had the feeling he already knew the answer to that question, but she answered it anyway, "Corrina Elaine Vaughn, Cory for short." She paused, studying his closely this time around, "But you already knew that."

"Yeah, I did," He admitted, "Well, just the part about her nickname." He smirked suddenly so she had to demand.

"What?"

"Corrina Elaine, that was my grandmother's name."

"I know," She answered, then added, "Your mother told me."

He looked at her surprised, "My mother?"

"Yes, your mother, she actually cares about me and Cory." Vaughn glanced down at his feet at her sharp words, something she said finally having an outward effect on him but Sydney wasn't done. "She hates you, ya know."

His head snapped up, "Who? Cory or my mother?"

"Your mother," She answered, simply. "She says that no son of hers would have ever done what you did."

"Yeah, that sounds like my mother," He paused, running a hand through his hair in a trademark 'Vaughn' move. "And Cory? Does she hate me too?"

"Not that I know of." Vaughn smirked again.

"What?" She demanded, again, his smirks getting on her nerves.

"I would've thought that you taught her to hate me," He answered.

"I don't want her to hate you because I do," She said, giving him a glimmer of hope but she had more to say, "I want her to hate you because you're the man that abandoned her before she was even born." She knew that no matter what her father did in the past, Cory would never hate him but it wasn't like she was going to tell him that.

Vaughn chuckled, "That would be a good reason to hate me but I don't think that it will come to that."

Not thinking that he knew that Cory would never hate him, Sydney took his words to mean that he thought she was going to take him back without a fight. He couldn't just walk back into her life, say 'honey, I'm home' and expect her to welcome him with open arms. "You don't honestly believe that I'll let you back into our lives."

He shook his head, "No, I don't." _At least not without a fight._

"Then what do you think?"

"I think you're either going to laugh in my face or punch me, whichever is more convenient if and when you find out why I left in the first place."

"Do you actually have any reasons for leaving?" She asked, quietly.

"Plenty," He answered. When he paused, Sydney thought that he was going to actually tell them to her. "But none that you're gonna like."

"Try me."

He shrugged, "One: my father."

"Your father?" She questioned.

"Do you remember that research I had done on your mother?" Sydney nodded, fully remembering the time that she had to corner him in a bar so he would confess about his rogue missions. "Well, I thought that I found evidence that he was still alive."

"He's alive?"

"No," Vaughn shook his head, sadly, "He was killed thirty years ago by your mother. But I did find evidence that I have a sister...half sister...older half sister."

Sydney's jaw dropped a little, "You have a sister?"

Vaughn nodded, and reached up to rub at his forehead, another one of his 'Vaughn' moves, "Yeah, I do. She's nice." He paused before adding, "Two: your mother."

"My mother?" She repeated, unconcerned that he refused to talk about his sister.

"Your mother," He confirmed, "She contacted me, saying that she had information on my sister, among other things."

"What things?"

"That's not really important," He snapped at her innocent question. Then softening his tone, he continued, "Three: the Covenant." This time she didn't echo what he said, she wasn't even sure what the hell the Covenant was. "I got Intel from various contacts that my investigation to find my sister and about my father's death were angering people high up in the Covenant. But I couldn't stop you know, she was my sister, I had to find her."

"I understand the feeling," Sydney said, referring to her early searches for her mother. It didn't matter that her mother had been KGB, she was her mother, and she had to find her. And then get shot and betrayed by her.

"Four: the threats," He paused, unsure if he should tell her about the threats. The look in her eyes told him that he did. "I started getting threats. Little things at first but then...then they started getting more serious. They threatened you, my mother, our baby, everything and everyone that I held dear."

"Did you tell the CIA?" Sydney asked, suddenly.

"At first," Vaughn admitted, "But they found out and told me to stop or they'd...they'd kill you. So I did, I kept it from the CIA, you, everyone, except your mother."

"My mother?" She repeated again.

"She and I were in correspondence, though we never met face to face. It was always through front people."

"You were talking to my mother?" She repeated to herself. "For who long?"

"As long as we were married," He answered, simply and truthfully. She sucked in her breath sharply, yet was still unable to breath. "And then I got the final threat and your mother's offer."

"What threat? What offer?"

"I uncovered something, something you really don't want to know about and they were mad to say the least. So to retaliate, they said they were going to have you killed unless I stopped or left. Your mother got Intel from _somewhere_ that there was actually a Covenant assassin on his way to L.A. to carry out the job. She offered to extract me from the equation and to keep a constant watch over you if I did so and that she would help me find my sister safely. God, Syd, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do."

"You knew?! You planned leaving me?!" She yelled, ignoring the strange looks from people passing them on the street.

"Yes," He answered quietly, earning him a slap from her across the cheek. Hard. "I deserved that. Now can I finish?" He didn't give her the option to answer, knowing damn well that she would refuse, "Afterwords, I spent six months flying around Europe and Asia, never staying in the same place for more than two days at a time. Once we were sure that you and the baby were safe, your mother held up her end of the bargain and located my sister. Even more so, she offered me a job, as one of her assets. It gave me something to do and an excuse to fly to Sweden to meet my sister. I did meet her and we talked, several times, still do actually, on occasion.

"So what it comes down to is that you choose to leave and to become an agent of Irina Derevko, the woman who killed your father."

"I told you, you weren't going to like my reasons," Vaughn had to force himself to keep his anger in check. "And I didn't choose anything."

"Bullshit. You choose to leave. You choose not to tell me. You choose your life away from me and our daughter."

"I was trying to protect you, Sydney. Why can't you see that?!" He yelled, matching her tone, also ignoring the weird looks from passing people.

"I didn't _need_ protecting, Vaughn. I _needed_ you and you let me down." She shook her head, "And don't tell me that this is all what ever the hell the Covenant is fault. You can't blame you're not being here for the past six years on them."

"The Covenant doesn't exist anymore, Sydney." He said his tone suddenly low and soft. "I didn't want to even open up the possibility for you or Cory to be hurt, so I stayed away. I had a contact keep an eye on you and tell me things about you or Cory or whatever was going on in your lives, but I never came anywhere near you two. Instead, I worked on taking the Covenant down and we finally did, a couple months ago. I wasted no time in coming to find you, Sydney, but I couldn't ever get up the courage to actually approach you."

Sydney was silent, digesting his words. She wanted to punch him and kiss him all at the same time and couldn't decide which one would be better. "I wish you had just stayed away." She said at last, quietly, tucking her hair behind her ear in a 'Sydney' move. "I wish you hadn't come back."

"I don't doubt that," Vaughn replied, taking another step closer to her. He reached forward and softly stroked her cheek before his hand grabbed hers. Bringing it to his lips, he kissed it softly, then whispered, "I love you, Sydney."

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, lifted her chin a little, and stared him in the eye before answering, "I don't love you, Vaughn."

He chuckled softly, releasing her hand, "You never could lie to me."

She felt something in her hand and looked down to see what it was. A note, it was a note. Quickly she unfolded it just once to reveal three simple words, 'From your mother'. Confused, she opened it all the way and another three words that she had learned to hate a long time ago stared back at her. 'Truth takes time'. She looked up from the note to ask him what her mother had meant by it and why he was giving it to her now but he was gone.

* * *

A/N: So what do you think? Was Vaughn's explanation up to par? above it? far below it? I'm going to go hide in the hills until someone says that they liked it. Lol, just kidding. There are no hills where I live, just large, pointy mountains. 

And look! He spoke more than one sentence!! It's a Christmas miracle, even though it's no where near Christmas but whatever you get it (hopefully). Maybe it's just a regular miracle.

**wicked-sista- **Thanks for wishing me luck with school, I'm gonna need it. I'm done with school in two years after this one. Not so happy. But I am so happy that you loved the flashbacks. This chapter didn't really have any but I couldn't really place one, ya know.

**Agent Flamingo**- Thanks for being so understanding. I love when people understand that I have a life away from fanfiction, though I don't usually admit it. lol.

**ProvidenceSea**- Again, thanks for understanding. I hope your break went better than mine. I admit, I sneaked on every once in a while when I shouldn't have and my math homework died a little but who needs to know what x equals? Nobody. lol.

**Carly**- Um yeah, the next will be the long awaited confrontation. lol. You probably already know that by reading the chapter but ya know. I know it did take a while to get to it but I'm hoping that it was totally worth it.

**Scary-girly**- Okay, so now I want to take a class on how to stalk people, though I probably already have that skill mastered. lol. I probably shouldn't be admiting that. lol.

**Miss47**- Yes, school does suck. But that's how the world turns. My mom says that and I'm like, gee totally not helpful. lol. Hope you got who Vaughn was talking to by this chapter. If not, go read it again but carefully this time. lol.

**sugarsnap591**- Thanks, and I really will try to update as soon as I can. School = EVIL!

**TheUptownGirl**- I love the grasshopper joke too! Ah, the great Sydney/Vaughn moments in season two that seemed to mysteriously disappear in the second because of the cow. But now she's gone and I am happy. :) see, me happy. lol.

**Erin**- I love writing cliffhangers for the end of my chapters. Usually it keeps me writing which gives you more updates. I promise not to do any drugs. Scout's honor. lol.

**Grouchy**- I liked those sunglasses too and the ones in season 3 also. I wanted to go out and by them just because he wore them even though they're probably really expensive and dude's sunglasses but who cares? it's MV!

**Charmed-angel4**- I should write a fic about Vaughn's evil twin Bob. I don't know...maybe sometime during a really boring math lecture. so probably tomorrow. lol. Until next time, STALKERGIRL!

**Rach5**- I know, cliffhanger's are evil but they keep me interested so they can't be that bad, right? Updates usually come sooner when I am interested. I really hope that you like the encounter. Still, really nervous about it.

**Ren201**- You can decide if you think Vaughn is good or bad. I kinda think that he is a little bit of both at the moment, but's just my opinion.

**chooky**- Thanks for saying that I have a wonderful writing style. That really makes my day when people say that. So happy!


	8. Torn

This is in Sydney's point of view cause it was easier to write this chapter like that. The next chapter will be in Vaughn's POV, and then the story will go back to being in third person. Also, the lyrics I had used are from Natalie Imbruglia's '_Torn_'. Google them.

* * *

_Sydney's POV_

I wanted to laugh.

I wanted to scream.

I want to turn around, go back to Claire's, grab Cory, and go back to the States, pretending that it never happened.

I wanted to run after him, catch him, kiss him senseless, take him and Cory back home and live the life that we should've had.

But I couldn't do any of that. I just stood frozen next to the wall, too damn stunned to do anything. After he disappeared, people started to go back to ignoring me and going on with their lives, instead of gawking at a troubled couple that was seeing each other for the first time in six years, seven months, and twelve days. God, did it seem to be an eternity since that night.

It suddenly occurred to me that he might still be nearby and be watching me and my reaction. And I didn't want to give him the luxury of knowing how his confession had affected me. I wanted him to toss and turn in bed late at night, unable to sleep because he was worrying about whether or not I despised his very being at the moment.

So, I pushed off the wall and continued walking the in direction I originally was going in. Very soon after, I ran across a bread vendor and desperately bought a roll to munch on while I thought over my predicament.

The stupid message my mother had sent to me through him was crumpled and dropped on the ground. I no longer wanted to know what she meant by that nor did I care anymore. I never wanted to speak to her again.

Everything could have been forgotten about if I hadn't remembered Eric's instructions.

"_Hello?" I answered my cell phone just after the plane had taken off. _

"_Sydney? Oh, good, I caught you. Listen, I need you to do something."_

_I thought that he had meant another analysis thing for the CIA and that would mean having to cancel the trip, which was something I absolutely refused to do. "Do I have too?"_

"_It's not analysis, Syd. It's something more important."_

_His tone scared me. "What's wrong?"_

"_After what happened in the park, and with the incident in Cory's room, the CIA has reason to believe that Vaughn might actually be stalking you and Cory." Eric said, quickly._

"_Do they want me to cancel the trip?" I asked, noticing Cory's head pop up hearing my words. _

"_No...no...no, just the opposite. They want you to go through with it. Maybe being in a foreign country will draw him out. And if it does, I want you to contact me immediately so we can close in on his location."_

_This startled me. Why would the CIA want to capture the son of a bitch, "Why?"_

"_Sydney, he's a wanted man." _

"_What? Why? I don't think that leaving would make him a wanted man." I tried to make the sentence as average as possible, but I could see it in Cory's eyes that she knew I was talking about her father. _

"_While I think it should be a crime for a man to leave his wife, especially if the wife is you," I smiled at his compliment, "Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with his leaving you. Uncle Sam doesn't take too kindly to its agents going rogue."_

"_Oh," I said, knowing he meant. The CIA wanted me to turn in Vaughn because he abandoned his duty as an officer of the U.S. government. "Look, I got to go."_

"_Alright. Promise me that you'll call me if he does contact you, Sydney. We don't know what kind of man he might be. I just want you to be safe."_

"_I will." I promised, fully intending to so at the time. _

Now that it actually happened, I wasn't so hell bent on that idea anymore. I know that it was my duty as an American citizen to turn in wanted criminals. But it was Vaughn. He didn't seem any different than the man I first met all those years ago when I first came to the CIA, the real CIA._  
_

I fished my cell phone out of my pocket, and scrolled through the address book until I got to Eric's number. All I would have to do was press the call button, tell him about Vaughn, and then I would never have to deal with him again. It seemed so simple and easy. But then, why couldn't I do it? I wanted to so badly, but my finger wouldn't press the damned button.

_Press it, you have too!_

_But it's Vaughn!_

Exactly my problem. It was Vaughn for crying out loud. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that he was a horrible person that abandoned me when I was five and half months pregnant these past six years, I couldn't ever get myself to believe it. I loved him that much. I still do love him that much. But things are really complicated now.

And what about Cory? She deserves to know about her father. She deserves to know that he is back and that he wants to be a part of her life. That he wants to make up for everything he missed during her life so far. Her first steps, her first words, her first haircut, her first trip to the zoo, her first day at nursery school, her first sleepover, the first time she read a book by herself, everything that he had missed so far. He wanted to be there for her first day in second grade, her first day in middle school, her first crush, her first time at camp, her first day in high school, her first boyfriend, her first kiss, her graduation, her going to college, her getting married and having children of her own. He wanted to be there. He never actually voiced the desire but I know that he did. I could see it in his eyes.

I stared at the phone a couple seconds more before pressing the button and raising the phone to my ear. "Eric?" I asked, tears choking my voice, "He's here." I couldn't bear to say anymore, so I hung up the phone immediately after, and shoved it back into my pocket. Tears that had wanted to be released for a long time, slipped out and down my cheeks. I didn't pay any attention to them as I broke down and leaned against a nearby wall.

I had just betrayed my husband, the love of my life. I had taken that small glimmer of hope that we could actually have a normal life with our daughter and smashed it. I don't know why I did it. There were reasons, plenty of them. But I ignored what my heart said and called Eric and turned into Michael.

_Michael? _

Oh God, I said Michael. I haven't said Michael in reference to him since the night he left. I forced myself to call him Vaughn or Agent Vaughn or Daddy when I was talking to Cory, but not once did I call him Michael. That name became like a plague to me. Every man that I met with the name Michael, I would avoid at all costs, even in my classes. Sometimes I would suggest that the student be moved to another class but when that couldn't be done; I would avoid that student like he carried a deadly virus. Probably why so many of my best students were named Michael. I'd see the name on a paper, give it an A, and shove it under the pile to be forgotten about.

And now I've said Michael while talking about him.

My tears overtook my body, causing racking sobs as I clung to that wall desperately. I don't think if I was clinging to the wall, I would have collapsed on the ground, not that anyone passing would have noticed. They all seemed intent on their own lives instead of noticing a crying woman that had just screwed up the last bit of hope she had for a normal life. I don't blame them.

Then it occurred to me. Maybe I can fix it. True, I can't call Eric back and tell him that I made a mistake. The CIA will come and check things out nonetheless. But then, I can just take Vaughn out of the area. I can take him and Cory and the three of us can leave and go wherever the wind takes us. I won't care, just as long as I have him and our daughter with me.

Frantically I pushed off the wall, dropping the long forgotten roll of bread in my hand in the process and looked around. I couldn't spot him immediately and I couldn't sense if he was around. I used to be able to but I suppose that too much time has passed.

I abandoned trying to sense his presence and cried out, "Vaughn!"

* * *

**A/N**: Before you all decide to go medieval upon the ass of the writer, which would be me, I just want to add that I have something up my sleeve that is going to take a few chapters to reveal itself. So no, Vaughn is not getting off that easily. I do love me angst at times and I love a good S/V fight.

**Rach5**- Thank you! I have an idea of how Cory and Claire are going to react but you'll just have to wait and see.

**Scary-girly**- I never really figured out the 'truth takes time' and i dont think that they ever explain it. i just liked that scene cause it's cool. :) and i've never stalked anyone before, but i know how to do it. and everything i learned has been from watching alias. lol!

**Heidi**- Well, definitely the slap from his mother but beyond that, i can't say much. it's a secret.

**Olivia**- you dont sound like a loser, maybe if you started waving around a big neon sign and like stood outside my house you would be. on second thought, that would just be really creepy and illegal. so yeah. you're not a loser.

**chooky**- okay, so there wont be a convenant reference for a while and the DVDs are awesome! i got them and i cant stop watching. the blooper reel, is especailly good this year. seriously though, he's not getting off that easily. really, he's not.

**hannahbannah**- i hate school too, it is EVIL and will rot in hell for it's sins. lol! i'm better now, sorta.

**rainluver**- yes he is that darn cute and i say again, he's not out of the doghouse yet and wont be for a long time. cause i'm evil. hehehehe...not really but ya know.

**victoria-king**- thank you!

**Agent Flamingo**- I can say for sure that the irina is going to come back, but that's another part of the plot that has yet to reveal itself because i like keeping everyone guessing. lol! and you're right, it does take someone special to be a daddy.

**Sammiespy**- yay! of course he's still in love with her! it's vaughn for pete's sake! he's loved her since before he even met her. and now i'm reminded of that one song. can't think of the name right now, get back to me on that. lol!

**Grouchy**- can you explain to me how he is evil again? cause i really like the comments but i'm a little confused about them. please dont be offended by me.

**Charmed-angel4**- you're right, i should write a fic about bob, that would be funny and if i do, i'll let you know first. okay, so how are not liking vaughn? i wanna know so i can make you like him again.

**neptunestar**- i hate when they're not together too. it makes me sad.

**i love vaughn and syd**- thank you!

**Silvertounge**- he will have a more in depth explanation. be patient. patience is a virtue, or so i've been told.

**Ren201**- you and a lot of people are undecided about vaughn. i'm kind of undecided about him. hope this chapter helped make up your mind about him.


	9. Shape of my Heart

I want you to forget everything you might have against the Backstreet Boys. It's the lyrics that matter, not the band. If you have a mean opinion about them, please keep it to yourself. I just used the song because it seemed to fit how Vaughn was feeling, cause this chapter_ is_ in his POV. Since Fanfiction is being mean, I'm taking the lyrics off this chapter. But you can google them anyway:

_'Shape of my Heart'_ by Backstreet Boys.

* * *

_Vaughn's POV_

I shouldn't have turned away from her. I shouldn't have left her standing there. But she needs time. I could see it in her eyes. I can respect that. I know what she's dealing with. I had to deal with it all six years, seven months, and eleven days ago when Irina called me in the middle of the night telling me to pack my bags, I left that night. I knew she was going to extract me soon but I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming pain that tore at my heart when I received that phone call.

It was the last thing that I wanted to do. But I did it anyway. I did it for her and our daughter. I did it so they were guaranteed a future, even if that future didn't include me.

I watched her sleep for probably an hour before I even made the move to take the bags I had packed, get into the car waiting for me outside, and drive out of her life. She had no idea what was going to happen. I think that's what killed me the most.

Irina told me not to leave her a note, or anything that might clue her into believing that I left not entirely out of my own free will. I should've ignored that command and told her what was happening before I left. Not waited until six and half years later to tell her the truth. But the thought that she might be hurt because of my stupid ass decisions was too much to bear and that's what kept me from telling her what was going on.

It was because I had become too wrapped up in finding the truth out about my father and then learning that I had a sister, that all of this happened. I had brought all this crap into our life and I did the only thing I knew to do to fix it. It killed me. It kept me from sleeping at night. But I did it for her. Telling myself that is what allowed me that little bit of sleep I ever got during these past six and half years.

And then when the final roadblock keeping me from her was demolished, I couldn't bring myself to ever approach her.

_I waited until she turned the corner to start my car and pull into traffic. I kept a good block of traffic between us as I followed her and Cory to their mystery location. Sydney pulled the car over at a park, close to an ice cream vendor. I smiled to myself. Of course they went for ice cream. That was Sydney's way of bribing people that she loved into doing what she wanted. She used to do it me all the time before I left, especially to get me to go to lunches with her father. _

_I watched as Cory pulled Sydney up to the vendor and waited impatiently until the vendor handed her mother two coffee ice cream cones. I should've known. Without me around to teach Cory about the wonders of different flavors of ice cream, Sydney had gotten her hooked on coffee ice cream. While I had nothing against coffee ice cream, there were other fish in the sea. _

_They found a table nearby and sat down to enjoy their treat. I wanted to get out of the car, and walk over to them and just sit with them while they ate their ice cream, maybe having some of theirs if it was offered. And maybe if I had been in their lives, I would've done that. But the idea, while pleasant, was impossible. Sydney would have attacked me, most likely, and Cory would have been scared out of her mind seeing a strange man walk up to them and just sit down with them. _

_Sydney's cell phone rang halfway through their snack and fifteen minutes later, Eric joined them. I was jealous to say the least, jealous that he was a part of their lives while I wasn't. But that was my own doing and I had to deal with the consequences of my decisions. _

_Cory ran off to play on the swing set, it seemed, as Eric and Sydney talked about something, most likely a **me** something. I knew that the CIA had found traces of my existence. I wasn't being sloppy after six years of carefully covering my tracks. I was trying to give them a warning that I was coming back. So during one of my visits to my sister in Switzerland, I used an old credit card issued to my name, and made sure that the store's security cameras caught me on film. _

_I tried the subtle warning and she went to France. _

_I turned my gaze from my wife and best friend, to where I had last seen Cory and panicked. She wasn't in sight, anywhere. Ignoring the thought in the back of my head that it was a stupid idea, I jumped out of the car and ran to the park. Sydney noticed that Cory was missing as well, and starting to run around yelling Cory's name. I wanted to do the same, but Cory didn't know me and that would've caused more problems than it solved._

_I stopped searching when I noticed that twenty feet in front of me was Sydney kneeling on the ground, embracing our daughter. Cory had just been hiding and thought it was a brilliant idea to be able to manipulate two adults. While it was clever, your child gone missing is every parent's worst nightmare, even for the parent who's been forced to watch their child from a distance. _

Sydney didn't see me that day but I think that Cory did. As she and Sydney left the park, she glanced in my direction, noticeably stopping her gaze on me. I don't know if she recognized me, but I do know that she did in fact see me.

Two days later, they went to France. Why, I have no idea. But I followed them, just the same. I arranged a private flight for me from L.A., a perk that I had picked up in the past years, and flew to France along with them. I arrived at the airport, minutes after they did and I did as I did for the past three months, I followed them through the crowds, just watching.

Cory starting yelling about seeing 'Daddy', whom I can only assume meant me, and I panicked at first until I realized that she was pointing to some other man, who did have a likeness to me. Sydney calmed her down and met my mother, and then the three of them drove off towards the home I grew up in after my father died.

I finally told her the truth, and now I have to give her the space she needs to deal with it. I got a safe distance from her, and proceeded to watch her reaction.

She stood frozen to the wall until abruptly she pushed off it and started walking in the direction she was headed in before I delayed her. She bought a roll of bread and I had to smile. Every time she was in France, she always insisted on getting some French bread. It is good stuff but after growing up on it for years upon years, you tend to not crave it. But she did.

She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, and obviously fighting tears, called someone. I don't know who she called. I know it wasn't a boyfriend or new husband because she had never dated after I left. Why she never did was a mystery to me. Not once did she make the impression that she was moving on to another man. It was like she was waiting for me and that only made everything ten times worse. If she had moved on, I might be able to do the same. But she didn't and I can't.

She hung up the phone and shoved it back in her pocket as those long held in tears spilled out. I watched, helplessly, as she sobbed, clinging to a wall desperately, like she depended on it to stay standing. It took everything I had to stay rooted to the spot.

Suddenly, she pushed off the wall and whirled, around looking hopefully for someone. It never occurred to me that she might have been looking for me, until I heard her cry out.

"Vaughn!"

* * *

**A/N**: Mwahahahaha! Don't you just want to kill me even more now?

**Agent Flamingo**- Yeah, it's supposed to me confusing. I'm hungry too! What's really good is a turkey sandwich. I love turkey!

**vaughnbear**- yes, truth does take time. My mom saw that ep and now when I ask her something and she doesn't want to tell me the answer, she says 'truth takes time'. lol!

**erin**- yes, school explains it all. School is evil! the work of the devil, i say! the devil! lol

**rainluver**- yeah, i like fights too. so good! and the make up is the best part of the whole thing of course ;)

**Grouchy**- okay, that makes more sense. thanks for clearing that up for me. hopefully he sounds even less evil or maybe he doesn't...i dunno...:D

**SammieSpy**- yeah they were! it's freaking sydney and vaughn! they define soulmates in my mind. so if you ask me what soulmates are, i say 'sydney and vaughn' honest to God truth.

**nattie700**- i dunno what happened to her but i want her to come back! i really loved her music! lol! i love the whole maddening circle but seriously, while i love s/v angst, i love s/v fluff even more, so we all know how this story is going to end.

**victoria-king**- yeah eventually is my plan, it is truly a great plan... i think. and yeah, i want some bread right now. and i have some...so yeah me. lol!

**Rach5**- yes, poor sydney. and no, that's not meant to be sarcastic.

**adpi24**- she is going to 'save' him by...well, i guess you'll just have to wait for the new chapter. lol!

**alexei04**- thank you!


	10. The Conditions

A/N: I know...gasping and clutching at your heart because Hallelujah, there's an update. And no, your eyes do not decieve you, I really have a new chapter for this story...like two months since the last one...I know, I know, really really long time but I have a good reason! Muse died, play rehearsal(that's over btw), school, bio, chronic sickness(I am currantly experiencing yet another cold. What the f is up with me getting the Goddamn colds?!), and friends. So that leaves me with no time to write, even though I have this entire story planned out. I will finish it! If it is the last thing I do(which it probably will be) I will finish this story by the time I graduate...in two years...after this year....please don't kill me.

And second, I absolutely adore each and everyone of you who review my stories but I am finding lately that I have no time (see above paragraph) to write, much less respond to reviews. I will still do that, for some but not all. So new policy is in the house: Melanie have no time to respond to reviews but she loves you all very dearly. Okay, I see no rotten tomatoes or anything else rotten hurdling toward me, so I assume that everyone is alright with that? Okay...

And great news! (sorta) Everyone responded to my song choices pretty well and that made me so happy cause I was a little worried about it. But you're all cool with them, I'm cool with them, ergo, we are all cool...I need to stop reading Harry Potter fanfics...::shakes head:: yes, I know, bad Melanie, straying away from the almighty Alias but it's not my fault! My friends forced me(well, maybe not forced persay) to read the Harry Potter books and then I did and I am almost as obsessed with HP now as I am with Alias and I love Sirius and he didn't die and Lupin is the best kick ass teacher in the world and my brain is getting quite full and I need lots and lots of help...::holds up sign:: Please help me...

And **Grouchy**: we all feel sorry for Vaughn....even if he was a jerk who left Syd and Cory...well at least I feel sorry for him but then again, I'm a _little_ biased in that area.

Okay, now you can have new chapter....:D

* * *

_(like I said, back to 3rd person)_

_Do I go to her? Do I just stand here? _It took him less than a full second to dismiss the idea of just standing there and letting this opportunity pass by him. She called to him. That meant she at least had something to say. Maybe more. But he wasn't going to get his hopes up.

Another two seconds later and he was at her side. She had waited until he was close to reach out and grab his shirt collar, gathering more strength than she showed in a long time and throwing him into the wall she had just been clinging to. A sharp pain arose in the area where his back hit the wall, but was quickly pushed to the back of his mind when she spoke, low and strong.

"Listen to me and listen to me good because I am _only_…" She paused, pushing into the wall harder, "…going to say these once." He swallowed hard and nodded.

"First, if you **_ever_** lie to me again, or decide to hide something from me, I swear you will regret the day you were born." He nodded in agreement.

"Second," She pushed him into the wall again, this time a little harder, "You will tell me everything that has happened since the day you starting digging that damned hole you got yourself into. No more of this vague crap, I want every action, every word you said, every f thought." Another nod from him.

"Third," Again, she pushed him into the wall. She wasn't sure why she did it. Maybe to keep his attention on what she was saying. Or maybe because she wanted to beat the crap out of him and this was less attention getting. "You are going to spend the rest of your life making it up to Cory and myself." He nodded.

"Fourth," This time, her push wasn't as hard, but still enough to add to the gathering pain in his back. "If you break any of these promises…I'll kill you myself. You do not get another chance. Is that clear?" He nodded, knowing full well that she would most likely do something like that.

"Good," She released her death grip on his shirt, allowing him the chance to step away from the wall a little. "Now that we have that settled you have to leave."

That was probably the last thing he was expecting. Most anything would have been more expected. "What?"

"Do you want to go to jail?" She asked, impatiently.

"Not really," He answered, following her as she took off at a fast walk down the street.

"Then I suggest that you get your ass out of France and soon. I give the CIA six hours at the most before they close in."

He stopped her by grabbing her arm. "You called the CIA?"

"What else would you expect me to do, Vaughn?" She asked, impatiently. "I did what I thought was right."

"But—"

She interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going to say. If she thought that turning him in was the right thing, why was she helping him elude the CIA? He knew that she wasn't one to take right and wrong lightly. "If you're in jail, you really can't be anything of a father to Cory. I'd rather live outside the law and have you and Cory, than live in and have a broken family."

"Is this all about Cory?" He asked, in a low voice.

"For now." She answered truthfully, and beginning to walk towards the car again, "I'm not sure if I can trust you yet."

He shook his head, "Let me get this straight, you would spend the rest of your life with me just so Cory could have her father around?" She nodded but refused to look at him as she did so. "That's very unselfish of you."

"I care more about Cory's happiness than my own at the moment," She replied, unlocking the car.

Vaughn didn't know what to say at this moment. He didn't deserve her mercy or whatever it was that she was doing. If she had told him 'No way in hell are you ever coming near me or Cory again', he wouldn't have been surprised. _That _was the Sydney he knew and loved. _This_ Sydney was different. This Sydney let him come near her, she let him talk to her, and the most surprising of it all, she was serious about letting him be a part of his daughter's life. More so, she was seriously considering running away with him and their daughter. Unable to hinder his curiosity anymore, he asked, "What happened to you, Syd?"

Sydney looked up surprised and for a moment, she faltered. That was probably the best damn question he or she, for that matter, had asked all damn day. What did happen to her? Yesterday, hell this morning even, she hated Vaughn and anything and everything about him and now here she was…what was she doing anyway? She was helping him elude federal custody when she had been the one to report him. Why was she helping him to begin with? She should let him get what was coming to him but she couldn't. Why couldn't she? The more she pondered the issue, the more questions piled up and the less she was able to provide answers. Shaking her head and with a gesture towards the car in-between them, she said, "Get in. We don't have a lot of time."

He hadn't really expected her to answer his question, so when she didn't it failed to surprise him much. Doing as he was told, Vaughn opened the passenger side car door and got into the car.

* * *

_"Syd? You okay?"_

_Sydney blinked and looked up at Vaughn. She smiled at the concerned look on his face. He worried about her non-stop and long ago she had given up on fighting him on it and had learned to just accept it. Now she adored it. Slowly, she nodded, her smile never fading. "Yeah, fine."_

_Her words didn't do much to reassure him. "Are you sure?" He asked, sitting down on the edge of the couch that she had fallen onto a little over an hour ago and refused to get up of._

_She was still smiling lovingly at him as she reached up and played with some of his hair, "Positive." She sighed contently before continuing, "I was just thinking."_

_Now the look of concern melted away to a smile that matched hers. "About what?"_

_Her breath caught in her throat and after a slight pause, she kept playing with his hair. She did not want to talk about what she had been thinking about. Her smile turned a little fake as she answered, "You."_

_He sensed her lie and caught her hand, pulling it away from his hair. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," He teased, kissing the wedding ring on her hand that he held._

_She laughed and pulled herself up to a sitting position, "It's the truth, I swear."_

_He raised an eyebrow and nudged her legs softly. She obliged to his unspoken command and bent her legs so he could sit down properly on the couch. "What do you swear on?"_

_She bit her lip in thought before finally saying, "On chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream."_

_He regarded her with another raised eyebrow before shaking his head, "Not good enough."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because," He explained, "That is my favorite ice cream. You don't even like that much." She opened her mouth to protest but he put a finger to her lips. "Why don't you just tell me what you were thinking about?"_

_She sighed, giving in. "My mother."_

_He tensed when she mentioned her mother and started to wonder exactly what she was thinking about in relation to her mother. "What about your mother?" He sounded calm, surprising himself._

_Sydney sighed again, "That I'm so much like her." Vaughn breathed a silent breath of relief. "And that scares me."_

_He frowned, "Why would that scare you?"_

_"Because," She cried, exasperated, "my mother is a horrible woman who…" She trailed off. Shaking her head, she went on but with a different subject. "When I was in college, I wanted to be just like my mom. I wanted to teach English Lit and have a loving husband and a little girl. But then…" She trailed off again, but he didn't need for her to finish this sentence. She had been devastated when she learned the truth about her mother. "I keep thinking," She went on, "What if I…?"_

_"What if you what?" He probed, softly._

_"What if I do what she did?" She answered, softly._

_"You're going to have to be more specific than that, darling." He teased, gently, hoping to bring a smile to her face._

_It worked, and she smiled, very briefly before the solemn look returned. "What if I leave like she did? What if I leave you and our child?"_

_He swallowed hard. If only she knew that she wasn't the one who would have to leave… "You won't." He said, reassuringly running a hand up and down her calf softly. "I know you and you wouldn't do something like that."_

_She snorted. "My dad thought he knew my mom and she did something exactly like that."_

_"But you're not your mother, Syd." He insisted._

_She sighed, "Now I'm not but what if…what if one day I do become her? I don't think I could live with myself if I became that woman."_

_His hand gravitated upwards to her cheek and caressed it softly. "Trust me, Syd. You won't ever become your mother."_

_"What makes you say that?" She asked._

_"Because you actually have a heart and you care too much about the people around you to become a woman like Irina Derevko."_

_She smiled briefly before stretching her legs out and standing up. "I'm going to go for a walk."_

_"Want me to come with?"_

_Her smile lingered as she shook her head and leaned over to kiss him softly, "No, I need to clear my head."_

_"Okay," He agreed with a disappointed sigh. "While you're gone, I'll make some dinner."_

_She licked her lips, just thinking about his cooking skills that bested hers –what do you expect from a Frenchman?- and nodded. "Then I'll make sure not to take my time."_

_"I'll hold you to that." He answered, watching her as she slipped on some suitable shoes and after blowing him a kiss, left the apartment. Sure that she was gone, he sighed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He took his time dialing a number before pressing the call button but he didn't raise the phone to his ear. Instead when a voice answered the phone, he hit the '1' button twice before hanging up the phone._

* * *

"Syd?" Vaughn asked again. 

After being deaf to his previous attempts to her get her attention, Sydney blinked and turned to him, irritably. "What?"

"Are we going to sit in the car all day?" He asked, gesturing around the car. They had drove to Vaughn's mother's house in silence and when they got there, Sydney turned off the car but made no move about going in.

Sydney shook her head, mentally hitting herself for letting herself get lost in that resurfaced memory. "Of course not," She snapped, yanking the keys out of the ignition and throwing her door open harder than necessary. He watched her without comment and carefully got out of the car as if just moving would set Sydney off.

She didn't seem to notice anything he was doing, instead she walked up to the house with a bit of stomp her foot and didn't wait for him before going inside. She turned just inside the door and gestured for him to follow. He did, fearing the look in her eyes.

"Claire!" Sydney yelled, the second she had closed the door behind Vaughn. He jumped, slightly, obviously nervous about facing his mother.

"In the kitchen," Claire yelled back.

"Where are Cory and Trish?" Sydney asked next, grabbing Vaughn by the arm and pulling him with her in the direction of the kitchen.

"My Aunt Trish?" Vaughn whispered to which Sydney nodded.

"Out back," Claire answered, with less of a yell, "Though you might want to go out there and save your daughter from more of Trish's nonsense…" She trailed off, suddenly when she saw Sydney step into the kitchen, dragging behind her one of the last people she ever expected to see again. Her mouth fell open as she stared at Vaughn openly.

Vaughn shifted his weight uncomfortably, though Sydney ignored him. "Look what I found wandering the streets." Sydney said, sarcastically, missing the look Vaughn threw her.

"Michael?" Claire asked, carefully. Vaughn nodded uncomfortably. "What…? How…? Why…? Are you…?" The daze left Claire just as suddenly as it came. "So, did you get a case of a guilty conscious or did you have amnesia for the past six years?"

Vaughn looked down at the floor and ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Well, you see…Maman, I can explain…"

"I think you owe Sydney and your daughter an explanation before you even begin to give me one." Claire snapped.

"He already explained everything to me," Sydney said, quietly.

Claire's motherly attitude returned a little though her temper still remained in control. "And was it a good explanation?"

Sydney bit her lip and glanced sideways at Vaughn, "Well, no…not really." Claire raised an eyebrow, and Sydney continued, realizing that wasn't the best thing to say even if it was the truth. "Well, it wasn't the explanation I had been expecting."

"And what were you expecting?" Claire demanded.

"Anything that didn't include my mother," Sydney mumbled and Vaughn fidgeted uneasily. Though her comment had been low, Claire still caught it.

"What about your mother?" She asked, shrilly. Sydney had confessed to her three years ago the truth about her mother and all that she had done, including killing Vaughn's father. "What in the name of all that is Holy have you been up to, Michael?"

Vaughn opened his mouth to respond when a soft voice gasped from the door leading to the backyard.

"Daddy?"

* * *

Why doI have the feeling that you all want to kill me now? Hehehehe.... 


	11. The Kings vs the Rangers

A/N: Okay...it's Christmas time and that means update! Whoo-hoo! So...Harry Chrismahanukwazakha to you all...and I watch far too much TV for my own good...

* * *

"_Daddy?"_

All three pairs of eyes turned towards the door and the little girl standing just inside it. Cory stared at Vaughn, obvious wonder in her eyes and something else that Sydney deemed to be alarm. An awkward silence fell over them as no one made the move to say or do anything.

It was one of those moments where you realize that all your mistakes, faults, choices, and judgments have affect someone besides just yourself. You realize that your imperfections have caused another life pain, more pain than was ever necessary. Your entire life, especially your missteps flash before your eyes and you're powerless to stop it. You see the troubles you've caused that other person and regret fills your very soul. And you can't do anything but let the regret and bitterness sweep its way over you.

"Daddy?" Cory repeated, barely above a whisper. This time Vaughn managed a nod. Cory frowned and yelled out, "You can't be my daddy." Then she turned and ran back outside. Trish, who had come back towards the house after Cory, stood in the doorway, staring blankly at her nephew before gritting her teeth and going after Cory.

Vaughn exhaled deeply while his hand pinched the bridge of his nose. "What did she mean by that?"

Sydney took offense by the innocent question and retorted, shortly, "Hell if I should know. You're mister-know-it-all, why don't you tell me?"

He winced visibly, and looked at her with pleading eyes, "Syd…"

She waved her hand dismissively, "Just don't."

Claire's heavy sigh turned both of their attentions from their brewing fight and to her.

Sydney's face clouded with concern. "Is something the matter Claire?"

Claire shook her head, "No…nothing that can't be solved by a very long talk."

Sydney's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Earlier, Trish took it upon herself to 'make Cory feel better,'" Claire said, air quotes and all. "I don't know exactly what she said, but apparently it's changed Cory's view of you, Michael."

Vaughn's eyebrows nearly reached his hairline and he asked. "What happened to being mad at me?"

Claire sighed impatiently with a motherly tint to it, "I can wait to yell and scream at you. I don't think Cory can."

"Hold on a minute," Sydney cut in. "You want _him_ to go talk to her?" Claire nodded. "Oh no," Sydney protested, "If anything I am going to talk to my daughter because unlike _some_ people, I have been there for her."

Vaughn winced again but said nothing, and silently contemplated how the two women in his life had so suddenly reversed positions. Next thing he knew they were going to switch again…

"Sydney," Claire chided, "I think Cory needs an explanation from her father. You just going out there will only convince her more of whatever Trish told her."

Sydney sighed, resignedly, and turned to Vaughn, a glare in her eyes. "Remember what you promised me." Vaughn nodded silently and went out the back door in search of his daughter. Sydney stared after him for a couple moments before turning back to Claire. "Claire…"

Claire interrupted her, "She needs to hear it from him, Sydney."

Sydney sighed again, her shoulders falling. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I don't like that much either, Sydney." Claire snapped. "What got into you? Bringing him back here? After everything that he did to you?"

Sydney smiled, in spite of herself at Claire's worrying. It seemed at times that the elderly woman thought of Sydney as her real daughter and Vaughn the one who married into the family and not the other way around. She sank into one of the kitchen table chairs before responding, quietly. "I still love him Claire." She turned her head upwards and looked at her mother-in-law. "Does that make me the weakest person you've ever met or what?"

Claire shook her head and didn't laugh at Sydney's after comment. "No, Sydney…" She said, "That makes you human."

Sydney gave a bitter laugh but said nothing.

* * *

_She shrieked with laughter and wriggled on the ground as his merciless hands tickled her sides (her only ticklish spot) ruthlessly. He straddled her waist, pinning her to the ground and making escape impossible, not that she wanted to escape much anyway. It was these moments, of free laughter and no worries that she lived for and held close on the endless trips around the world. The life of a spy was so lonely sometimes and Sydney counted the days until she was Mrs. Michael Vaughn and she could quit that life._

_"Vaughn!" She shrieked, "Stop!"_

_Vaughn just laughed._

_Somehow, Sydney managed the effort to beat her hands wildly in the air, trying to stop his incessant tickling. One of Vaughn's hands left her side and with one sweep, caught both her wrists in his powerful grip. Then he pinned her hands above her head, trapping her even more than before._

_Sydney pouted at her defeat, still wriggling helplessly against his relentless tickling. "Stop!" She yelled again, laughing._

_Vaughn did stop on command this time and she exhaled deeply. "Thank you."_

_"Say it," He commanded softly._

_She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No. You can't make me," She relied._

_He raised a hand over her stomach, ready to strike, and repeated, "Say it."_

_Her eyes widened in shock. Being tickled again was definitely not in her immediateplans. "Okay! I will!"_

_He put his hand down and waited for her. When she didn't continue, his hand twitched, getting ready to tickle her again. "Well?"_

_She smiled. "Get off me first."_

_A frown touched his brow. "But I have such a good view from where I'm sitting." He whined._

_She laughed. "I bet you do. Now off."_

_He grumbled but obeyed her command nonetheless._

_Sydney sat up, and rubbed the back of her neck as though it pained her. It didn't really, it was just a distraction to delay the inevitable._

_"Come on," Vaughn nudged._

_"Fine," She sighed and mumbled a few words that sounded remarkably like, "stupid stubborn Frenchman." Vaughn laughed and poked her in the side to hurry her up. "Okay, fine. The Kings are the best hockey team in the league."_

_"And?" He prompted._

_"And," She sighed, "The Rangers suck."_

_"And?" He prompted again._

_"And," She said through gritted teeth, "They smell bad too."_

_He grinned. "Now, was that so hard?"_

_She laughed. "What is it with you and your precious Kings?"_

_His mouth dropped a little. "Syd! They're the best team in the league, you said so yourself. Not the stupid Rangers. The Kings."_

_She leaned back on her arms, craning her head towards the sky, "Hmm…sometimes I think you love your Kings more than me."_

_"That simply isn't possible," He replied, leaning over to kiss her cheek. She turned her head at the last second and he caught her lips instead. She leaned into the kiss before breaking it off with a smile playing on her lips. His eyes opened, a little disappointed and saw her looking at him. "What?"_

_She shook her head. "Nothing."_

_He decided not to push her on it and got to his feet instead. She looked at him confused when he offered a hand to help her up. "Come on, let's go get ice cream."_

_She smiled and accepted his hand. "I'm going to make you get coffee."_

_He laughed, "Not if I can help it."_

* * *

Vaughn sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair again. This was going to be harder than he thought. Sydney and his mother had been somewhat to not at all forgiving but then again, they had known him for a very long time _and_ they were adults, they comprehended things better than a child did. Cory on the other hand, was neither. She had never met him –though he was pretty sure that she had seen at least a picture of him and knew who he was- and she was only six years old. She wouldn't understand that her daddy left because he thought that he was doing the right thing.

He sighed again and had to push himself to walk up to where Cory and Trish sat under the shade of a large oak tree. He bit back the wistful smile when he realized that Cory had picked this place to run away to. He used to do it all the time when he younger and had a fight with his mother.

He cleared his throat and two heads jerked up to look at him. Cory merely looked down again and started to play with grass beneath her fingers. Trish, on the other hand, she looked livid. "What are you doing here?" She hissed, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him out of hearing range of Cory.

Vaughn had neither the time nor the energy tofight with his crazy aunt and he sighed. "I just want to talk to my daughter."

Trish snorted and crossed her arms across her chest. "Your daughter?" She repeated. "Some father you've been. Walking out on her and her mother before she was even born!"

Vaughn sighed again and scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Maman said you said something to her. What did you say?"

"As if I would tell you." Trish retorted.

Vaughn scoffed. "Stop being difficult, Aunt Trish, and just tell me."

Trish eyed him carefully and decided after a long while to ignore his snappy tone. "She was upset about you, among other things." Vaughn's eyes narrowed at the mention of 'other things' but he decided not to ask. "So, to give her some closure on your disappearing act, I told her that last week when I was consulting my crystal ball…" Vaughn snorted and again stayed wordless. "…you contacted me from beyond the grave."

Vaughn stared at her. "Beyond the grave?" He repeated after a long silence. "I cannot believe you did that."

"Did what?"

"Did what?" Vaughn repeated, incredulously. "You told her that I was dead! I knew your crystal ball gazing and your psychic readings were a fraud but I never thought that you would go so far but to tell my daughter that I was dead."

Trish stayed level headed, unlike him. "What would you rather I told her?"

"Nothing," Vaughn snapped. "You should have kept your big mouth shut and not have told her anything." He exhaled heavily, and pinched the bridge of his nose for a couple minutes.

"Michael…"

Vaughn shook his head, slowly. "I don't want to talk about it." He said slowly. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go talk to my daughter and try to do some damage control before she gets it in her head that I'm a ghost." Trish stared at him as he walked away from her and back over to where Cory sat playing idly in the grass for a couple minutes before storming back towards the house.

Cory ignored him for several minutes, intent on making a grass house. Vaughn took that time to really study his daughter. Sure, he had seen pictures of her (private inspectors he hired to trail her and Sydney had taken care of that) but compared to actually seeing her, pictures did not do her justice. She looked like a younger version of Sydney with green eyes. She had Sydney's hair, she had her dimples, and she had that air about her that said she could take care of herself.

Cory put the final touches on her grass house before looking up, eyes wide. "Are you a ghost?" She asked.

Vaughn wanted to laugh but he wasn't sure how she would take that, so he smiled softly and shook his head. "No, I am not a ghost."

"Then how did you talk to Aunt Trish on her crystal ball?" She continued.

"I didn't." He replied, simply.

"So Aunt Trish lied to me?" She asked, her brow furrowing in deep thought.

He nodded. "Yes, she did."

"Why'd she do that?"

Vaughn couldn't think of better reason than she was a heartless bitch, so he merely shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Cory nodded and dropped her gaze to her grass house. She was silent for a very long time and Vaughn swore that more than once, he saw her shoulders shake with silent tears. He wanted to enfold her in his arms and stop the tears but he wasn't sure how that would go. Finally she looked up and stared at him with watery green eyes. "How come you left us?" She asked in a whisper.

If it was possible, Vaughn would have built a time machine, gone back in time, kept his nosey ass out of things that should never included him, and maybe then things would go right for him. Or he could take the simple route and…well he had yet to discover that one.

As building a time machine was impossible and any other route just ended in more heartbreak for Cory, Sydney, and himself, Vaughn started to contemplate was to tell her. He couldn't tell her the whole truth. No, that would be way too much for her to understand. The last thing he wanted was to expose her to the evils of the world at such a young age. No…the whole truth would be too much for her. It was almost too much for Sydney.

The abridged version however…that might work.

"Well…" He started, slowly. She watched him with childhood innocence and unusual patience. "…it was to protect you and Mommy."

Cory tilted her head to the side, inquiringly, and after a pause asked. "Do you love me?"

Vaughn's heart melted right then and there. In less than a half hour after their first meeting, Cory had managed to worm her way into the deepest recesses of his heart reserved for only Sydney and his mother. Of course, he had always felt a love for his daughter but it had never been that deep kind of love that only grows after long amounts of time.

"Of course I do." Vaughn replied, in a hoarse whisper.

Cory nodded slowly and looked down at the grass again. "If you love me, why have you been gone forever?"

He wanted to correct her and say that he hadn't been gone forever. If he had, she wouldn't have been born. But he sensed that this was serious time for her and to laugh would probably set off her temper, which considering she was Sydney's daughter, she was pretty much guaranteed to have.

He sighed, softly and said, "It's more complicated than that."

"How?"

"It just is." Damn, she was one curious child.

"That's not a very good reason." She pointed out, matter-of-factly.

Vaughn dared laughter and surprisingly, Cory didn't get mad. Instead, she giggled. "You're right, it's not." He said, still laughing.

Cory giggled again before climbing to her feet. Vaughn watched her with a slight frown as she closed the distance –about a yard- between them and suddenly plopped down on his lap. He made a slight 'oomph' sound at the sudden weight of six year old on his lap but quickly adjusted her to one knee, balancing her weight easier.

"What's your favorite animal at the zoo?" She asked, after sighing contently.

"The elephants," Vaughn replied, smiling happily at her.

"Really?" Cory asked, excitedly. "Me too! I love elephants. I even asked Mommy if we could get one."

Vaughn laughed again. "Where would you keep it?"

"In the backyard," Cory replied, sounding very proud of herself for thinking of such a good argument for her case. She launched into a story about seeing the elephants at the zoo a couple days ago but Vaughn didn't hear any of it.

He was reveling in the fact that he had so obviously won his daughter's affection and most importantly, her forgiveness. Maybe it was because she was so young and forgiveness came easy to her or the fact that she hadn't ever fully experienced the bitter pain of his betrayal that she forgave him so quickly.

Either way, Vaughn was more than happy to accept the victory without questioning it. Now if only his mother and Aunt Trish, and Eric, and everyone he came into contact with in L.A. and most importantly, Sydney would be able to forgive and forget as easily and welcome him back into their lives.

* * *

okay…I have the feeling that some of you may hate the way I dealt with the Cory/Vaughn conversation…and I understand that but I have two very good excuses. One, Cory is six years old. Young children tend to forgive and forget a lot easier than adults. And two, I'm a sucker for the almighty God that is Vaughn and I figured that he needs someone on his side. And who better than his daughter? Don't worry…Mummy dearest –both of them- will be quite livid with Cory's acceptance. I can't make everything easy…


	12. Packing fits and ways of forgiveness

A/N: So I have decided to update one of my four stories going at the moment at least once a week. And it's this story's turn this week. Everyone rejoice. Anywho...I'm having major writer's block with this fic. I know where I want to go with it, and all that, I'm just...bleh. Anyway, I'll try not to space updates out too far on this fic.

Oh and thank you so much for all your support with Cory's acceptance of Vaughn. Makes me all warm fuzzy.

* * *

Sydney frowned slightly and exhaled, "Francie, what is that I hear in the background?"

The line was silent before Francie replied with, "Oh, that's just Will. His team scored."

Sydney smiled nostalgically. She remembered when she, Francie, and Will would spend afternoons watching football games and whenever Will's team (the Minnesota Vikings) scored, he had a special victory dance that included a lot of yelling. "Tell him I said hi."

"Sydney says hi!" Francie yelled, a little muffled. "He says hi back and do you want those potato chips in your pantry?"

Sydney laughed lightly, "He can have them."

"She says you can have them!" Francie yelled before returning to her normal voice, "Now repeat what you just said."

"About what?"

"About what?!" Francie repeated, loudly. "Syd…hello, you're husband that you're technically still married to comes back out of the blue and you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

Sydney sighed, "I know what you're talking about, Fran. I just would rather prefer not to think about it."

"You're going to have to think about it you know." Francie stated matter of factly. "From what you've told me, it doesn't sound like he's going anywhere."

Sydney sighed heavily and held her head in her free hand. "I know…" She bit her lip and tapped her fingers on the kitchen table. Both of which were her nervous habits. "Got any advice?"

Francie laughed, "Normally I would Syd…but seeing as this is kinda out of my league…" She trailed off, knowing that Sydney would understand.

"Yeah, you're right," Sydney said, exhaling. She sat up straight and stretched her neck on both sides before looking out the window and audibly gasping at what she saw. Was that Cory on Vaughn's lap and were they actually laughing?

"Syd?" Francie asked, hearing the gasp. "What's wrong?"

"I…" Sydney said, dumbly as she continued to stare out the window. "I'm…going to have to call you back."

"What?" Francie asked, completely confused. "Wait….Syd no!" But it was too late, Sydney clicked off her the phone and stood up abruptly from her chair. Time to go figure out what the hell was going on outside.

-

_"Mommy?" Cory asked as Sydney pushed her daughter on the swings in one of Los Angeles's many parks._

_"Yes, sweetheart?" Sydney asked, grabbing the chain on the swing and bringing Cory to a stop gently, thinking that Cory wanted to get off._

_She hadn't wanted to, but Cory didn't say anything about it. Instead she jumped off the swings and turned to face her mother. "Do you ever have dreams about Daddy?" She asked._

_Sydney hesitated. Did she ever have dreams about Vaughn? Yeah, actually, a lot and most of them scared her. "Sometimes," She answered, carefully. "Why?"_

_"Cause I had a dream about Daddy last night," Cory replied, playing with the zipper on her jacket._

_Sydney inhaled slowly and smiled. "Why don't we get some ice cream and then you can tell me about it?"_

_Cory grinned and nodded happily as she took Sydney's hand and followed. Sydney found an ice cream vendor and bought them two coffee flavored ice cream cones. Sydney had first dared to give Cory ice cream when she was year and a half old and it took less than two bites for Cory to love it and demand more. Four years later, she practically lived for it._

_Sydney led them to a table and after she was sure Cory was situated nicely, she sat down across from her. "Now tell me about your dream."_

_Cory stared at the table as she munched on her ice cream. Sydney didn't push her, knowing Cory would talk when she was ready. "Well…" She started at long last. "Me and you and Daddy were at the circus together and there were elephants, and Daddy loved the elephants just like me and we were laughing a lot and I liked it."_

_Sydney smiled, deciding not to correct Cory's run on sentence or bad grammar. She was a little more concerned about how she knew that Vaughn like the elephants. She didn't remember telling her that. "That sounds nice."_

_Cory nodded happily. "It was nice." She stated, before her mood went back to being somber. "Mommy?"_

_"Yes?"_

_"When Daddy comes back, can we go to the circus?" Cory asked._

_Sydney's smiled faltered. She didn't want to lie to Cory and say yes because in all actuality, she had no idea if Vaughn was coming back and even if she wanted him to. When Cory was born, she swore she wouldn't lie to her unless it was about things she was too young to hear about. Like where babies really came from._

_"How about you and I go to the circus sometime?" Sydney suggested, hoping that would satisfy Cory._

_Cory looked disappointed. "Okay…" She said softly._

_Sydney felt her heart breaking and added, cheerily, "Grandpa can come to."_

_"Really?" Cory asked, visibly perking up._

_Sydney laughed and nodded. "Yes, really. He'd love it."_

_"Okay," Cory agreed, happily. "Can we go this weekend?"_

_Sydney laughed again, "The circus isn't in town this weekend."_

_Cory pouted for a moment, "Then when is it?"_

_"Two weeks from now," Sydney replied, simply. "And pull that lip back in missy. That stopped working last year."_

_Cory retracted her protruding bottom lip and took a huge bite of ice cream. "Hank you, Mwommy," She said, through a mouthful of ice cream._

_Sydney laughed once more. "Swallow before you speak." She chided, gently. "And you're welcome."_

-

"Mommy!" Cory yelled, smiling widely when she saw Sydney approaching. She climbed off Vaughn's lap and ran to hug her mother. Sydney smiled lovingly at her, and returned the embrace before Cory let go and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards where Vaughn sat on the ground. "Come on, Mommy! Daddy's back!"

Sydney forced a smile as she followed Cory. She wasn't as excited about Vaughn being back. But then again, she wasn't completely bitter about it either. This was getting confusing.

Cory didn't go back to Vaughn's lap but she did sit down right next to him. "Mommy, Daddy loves the elephants too!" She said excitedly.

Sydney smiled but remained standing. "I know," She replied softly. "I need to talk with Daddy" -She had to force the word 'daddy' out of her mouth- "for a moment. Why don't you go find Grand-mere and tell her all about your talk with Daddy?" Again, she almost gagged when the name 'daddy' was said from her mouth in reference to Vaughn.

Cory looked disappointed but Sydney gave her a stern look and she nodded. "Alright Mommy," She said simply, climbing to her feet and after a sorrowful glance towards Vaughn, going to the house.

Sydney and Vaughn stared at each other in silence, each battling their own inner demons before Sydney sighed loudly and asked, "What the hell did you say to her?"

Vaughn raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Cory," Sydney replied exasperated. "She…_likes_ you!"

"Is that such a horrible thing?" He asked calmly.

Sydney opened her mouth to say something but shut it dumbly. Actually, no that wasn't such a horrible thing. It's just that he actually managed to earn Cory's affection and that peeved Sydney because she wanted every weapon against him she could get a hold of. The CIA was a good weapon but she had already decided that she didn't want him to go to jail.

That reminded her; she needed to get Cory and Vaughn out of the country within the next five hours.

Frick.

"Sydney," Vaughn said quietly and she looked to him. "You shouldn't trust Trish with Cory anymore."

"What?!" Sydney yelled. "Why?"

"Because she lied to Cory point blank," Vaughn replied, finally climbing to his feet so he didn't have to look up at her to have a conversation.

"About what?" Sydney asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"She told Cory that I was dead." Vaughn explained.

Then it dawned on Sydney. That was why Cory had said what she said when she and Vaughn first saw each other. Oh God, Trish was bitch. Vaughn had a point. No more trusting Trish with Cory.

"What did you say to Cory?" Sydney asked next.

"Basically that Trish is a liar," Vaughn answered.

"Nothing else?" Sydney questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Vaughn hesitated. He didn't want to tell Sydney everything that had happened between him and Cory. That was private in his mind. But then, he promised never to lie or keep something from her.

Sydney sensed his hesitation and sighed impatiently. "Nevermind…we don't have a lot of time."

For a moment, he wasn't sure what she was talking about. But the memory lapse didn't last long and he remembered that she had called the CIA. And he had about five hours of freedom if he didn't get the hell out of the country.

"Right."

"Do you have a bag packed?" She asked. Then realizing that it was pretty stupid question, she shook her head and corrected herself, "Forget that too."

He nodded his agreement.

"You should go talk to your mother." She said after an awkward silence. He raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged, "It would give you something to do while I get mine and Cory's things together."

"You're still coming with me?" He asked surprised. He had convinced himself that she had changed her mind about what she said about wanting a family and instead of going with him to wherever he might go, she would just help him and that would be that. Now she was talking as though she hadn't changed her mind and was still convinced to take Cory with her and follow him to wherever he ended up.

What the hell happened to the Sydney he knew and loved?

She shrugged again. "I told you; I'd rather have a family and be outside of the law than have a broken one and inside it."

Again, what the hell happened to the Sydney he knew and loved? This wasn't like her. If she had been completely bitter about his leaving and refused to ever see and/or speak to him again after helping him escape federal custody, then he wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.

"Okay…" He agreed after a pause.

-

_"I hate packing." Sydney stated as she struggled to stuff clothes into her suitcase. "Can I just say that?"_

_Vaughn laughed and abandoned his suitcase to help her with hers. "You travel around the world weekly and you hate packing?" He asked, teasingly. "Maybe you got into the wrong profession."_

_She stuck her tongue out at him immaturely. "I have a bag packed for missions all the time." She replied indignantly. "Besides, this is different."_

_"How?" He asked as he took some of her clothes out of the suitcase and started to fold them differently._

_"Because this is an actual vacation," Sydney explained. "Meaning, I'll have time to enjoy the sites and do what normal people do on their vacations."_

_When he fist met her, two years previously, he learned of her overpowering need to be normal. Now that they were going to be married, he swore to never let their life slip beneath the bar of normal. "And what do normal people do on vacations?"_

_Sydney started to retort something smart but decided not to at the last moment. "I don't know…not steal something from a terrorist or government?"_

_Vaughn nodded. "That's true. They sleep in too."_

_Sydney smiled. "I like the sound of that."_

_"I bet you do," He teased leaning over to kiss her. She met him halfway and kissed him first. Just as he was going to take the kiss further, she pulled back grinning impishly._

_"We're going to miss our flight," She reminded him quietly._

_"There are others," He replied, his green eyes glinting._

_She laughed and looked down at her suitcase, turning red. Even if they were engaged, he could still make her blush like a teenage girl. "I want to have a normal vacation. And that means missing the flight because we suck at getting places on time. We aren't like that." She said looking back up at him._

_He nodded, reluctantly. "Alright fine. But you owe me a very long lazy morning," He replied, looking disappointed._

_She laughed, "I know. We will."_

_Vaughn still looked a little doubtful. "Okay," He said at last. "So where are we going again?"_

_"Vaughn!" Sydney cried, disbelieving. "France! To visit _your_ mother!"_

_He laughed and that was when she realized that he was teasing her._

_"You suck," She said, half jokingly, half just to spite him._

-

"Mommy? Where are we going?" Cory asked as she watched Sydney repack the suitcase she had just unpacked the night before. Sydney snapped out of the memory that had consumed and looked over at Cory.

Sydney hesitated. She still wasn't sure where they were going. "On a trip."

"We're already on one," Cory answered.

Sydney smiled at her daughter. She was smart, that was for sure. "But this one we're going on with Daddy," She answered.

Cory's face lit up instantly. "Really Mommy?" She asked excitedly.

Sydney had to laugh. Even if it was Vaughn that her daughter was so excited about, it was still completely adorable that Cory was so excited. "Yes, really. Now help me pack."

Cory nodded and jumped off the bed she was sitting on and reached for the pile of her clothes. She started to stuff them into her own suitcase hurriedly, not even bothering to fold them in any way shape or form.

Sydney noticed and watched Cory with a bemused look on her face. After awhile she stepped forward and put a stop to Cory's hurried packing by placing her hands over her daughters.

Cory looked up confused, "We have to pack Mommy," She said seriously.

Sydney smiled patiently, "I know…but why don't we pack correctly and then it'll be so much easier?"

Cory considered this before she frowned and said, "I hate packing."

Sydney laughed. _Now why did that sound so familiar?_ "I know. I do too."

"Then we should make Daddy pack for us," Cory said firmly.

Sydney laughed again. "And what would that prove?"

"That we don't have to pack anymore," Cory replied just as firmly and serious as she had earlier. Well, she had no problem in putting Vaughn to work. Not that Sydney had a problem with it, she just found it amusing.

"But what if he packs the wrong stuff?" Sydney asked seriously. She had found that Cory liked to be treated as a big girl, not a little child and Sydney played along with it. To a point.

"Then we can buy new stuff," Cory reasoned.

Sydney laughed for a third time. Only Cory. "Well, what if I don't want to buy more stuff?"

A slight frown line appeared between Cory's eyebrows. "Well…then pack faster Mommy."

"I'm working on it, Miss Impatient," Sydney answered teasingly.

Cory opened her mouth to protest but was interrupted by the sound of something glass –and most likely valuable- shattering against the wall downstairs. Both she and Sydney frowned and looked towards the door.

"What the hell?" Sydney muttered, going over to the doorway and opening the door wider from the small crack it had been opened earlier. Cory followed her and both peered out into the hallway, confused.

"Michael Christopher Vaughn!" Claire cried enraged.

Sydney grimaced and ushered Cory back into the room. "You stay here and finish packing, okay?" Cory nodded her agreement and Sydney gave her a quick smile before stealing out into the hallway, making sure to close the door behind her.

"What did you do now Vaughn?" She muttered under her breath.


	13. Good luck spiders

I have reinstated responses for reviews but to get to them you have to visit my livejournal. It's easier for me that way. So click on the homepage button on my author lookup and it'll take you to the livejournal.

* * *

Vaughn flinched when his mother started her screaming fest at him. Maybe he shouldn't have told her what he'd told Sydney. Actually no, if he had lied, she would have gone WWIII on his ass. Right now it was an advanced Cuban Missile Crisis.

"You left Sydney and Cory for that Derevko woman?" Claire thundered.

He flinched again. By the look on her face, he assumed that Sydney told his mother about her mother. Well, that didn't help him any. "Well, not exactly."

"It sounds like it to me Michael," She answered.

"You don't know the whole truth, Maman." He replied shortly.

The look on her face told him that it was a huge mistake to use that tone with her. "Then enlighten me."

"I can't."

"Why not?" She demanded. First he tells her some backwards excuse as to why he's been missing for the past six years and now he won't tell her everything? That boy needed a good whipping.

"Because I'm not going to tell you before I tell Sydney." Vaughn responded.

"She doesn't know?" Well, that had been unexpected. She thought that he wasn't telling her because he was being a secretive little crap.

"Not yet," He admitted. As she opened her mouth to yell at him again, he hurried on. "I'll tell her when we get a moment alone."

Claire was not the kind of woman that liked being kept in the dark. If she knew that someone was keeping a secret from her, she wanted to know what it was exactly. She didn't like to wait to be told second or third or fourth. She wanted to be first. Nevermind that Sydney was married to the man and by that little fact, deserved to know every little thing first.

"Talking about me?" Sydney asked, interrupting anything else Claire had to say.

"Of course not," Claire answered.

"Then why'd I hear my name?" Sydney asked. Apparently Claire didn't want to be caught trying to force information out of Vaughn.

"I'll tell you later," Vaughn said, throwing a look towards his mother.

Sydney raised an eyebrow, not believing that this was nothing. First she heard something breaking and then yelling and now her name? "Vaughn, can I talk to you in the hall?"

He nodded, glad to have a reason to escape his mother's glaring and yelling.

"What's going on?" She asked in low tone in case Claire was listening. It might have been awhile since she was a spy but she hadn't forgotten everything.

"I'll tell you later," Vaughn repeated.

Sydney raised an eyebrow at him. He wasn't technically lying to her. While he did promise to tell her everything, she wasn't sure that's what he doing. And he did promise to tell her later. Maybe he didn't want anyone to overhear.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No, we're almost done packing. Where's your stuff?"

"In my car in town," He responded.

"We can get it on the way to the airport." She nodded, already calculating a plan in her head.

"I can arrange a private flight to Stockholm," He added, the wheels in his head turning as well.

"Why Stockholm?" She asked. Europe was a big place, why did he feel the need to go to Sweden?

"My sister lives there." He answered after a pause.

"Your sister?" She repeated. Other than when he had explained his disappearance to her, he hadn't mentioned his sister. Did Claire know about his sister? God, she hadn't even stopped to ask herself if his mother knew that his father had another child.

"Yeah, she can-"

He was cut off mid sentence bya shrill scream coming from the bedroom Sydney had left Cory in.

"Cory!" Both Vaughn and Sydney whispered at the same time as their eyes locked for a split second before they took off running back up the stairs.

-

"_Just kill it already Michael!" Sydney shrieked inching away from the shower. _

_Vaughn laughed and moved forward to where she was backing away from. "It's just a spider, Syd." _

_A shudder overcame her. "Easy for you to say." She snapped. "You actually like spiders."_

_Another laughed escaped his lips as he bent down and carefully picked up the spider out of the bathtub. "It's harmless."_

"_You come over here and I'll show you harmless," She muttered angrily. What didn't he understand about 'just kill it already'? It was simple. She hated spiders and if she had her way, the spider in his hand would be on its way down the drain. But no, he had to stop her before she could turn on the water. _

"_Who knew that a hardened spy could be afraid of a little spider?" He mused, lifting his hand and extending it towards her. _

_She spotted him moving the spider towards her and backed up again her eyes filling with terror. "Michael! Stop it! It's not funny anymore!" _

"_Oh alright." He resigned by stepping away from her and over to the window. After glancing at her and seeing her glaring at him, he opened the window and set the spider on windowsill before closing it again and turning back to her. "See? It's gone."_

_A small 'hmtp' came from her. "It would have been gone sooner if you had let me send it down the drain."_

_"Spiders are good luck." He told her._

"_Oh they are not." She retorted. _

"_Why do you hate spiders so much?" He brushed aside her comment. "They're good luck."_

_" I just do," She answered after a pause. Okay, so she didn't have a good reason for hating spiders. That was just how the world turned and if he had a problem with it, he could just go to hell. "Is there a problem with that?" _

"_No," He replied shaking his head slightly as he stepped away from the window and back towards her. "I was just curious." _

"_Why don't I believe you?" She asked, following him with her eyes as he stopped right in front of her. _

"_Because you have some serious trust issues," He responded, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. _

_Try as she did, she couldn't help but lean into his hand. Damn him, he tricked her again. "Well, you have issues with listening." She shot at him. _

"_Only when you're complaining about stupid things," He said, grasping her left hand with his right and entwining their fingers. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her wedding ring glinting in the late afternoon sun and a smile crept into her eyes. _

"_I don't complain about stupid things," She countered, trying to ignore that he was seducing her and doing a damn good job of it. Why was it that the only person who could have power over her was him? _

"_Yeah, you do." He informed her, nudging her backwards so she rest against the sink. _

"_Like what?" She questioned, closing her eyes in an attempt to clear her head. That wasn't working so well. He knew exactly what he was doing and liked it. _

"_Like spiders in the shower," He replied, smirking a little at her. "And being normal and your dad and work and how I dislike coffee ice cream, just to name a few."_

_She opened her eyes so she could glare at him. "And your point would be?"_

"_Being normal's far too overrated," He whispered. Now he was close enough to her face that his breath fell across her face, warm and oh so inviting. _

"_Says you," She whispered back, trying to hold onto that last bit of restraint she had. To put it simply, it was a losing battle._

_Vaughn chuckled, releasing another wave of warm air across her face. That's when Sydney caved and made the first move, closing the distance and kissing him before he could completely make her fall under his spell. _

_-_

"Cory?" Sydney called again as she burst through the bedroom door with Vaughn right on her heels. "What's wrong?"

"There's a spider!" Cory wailed, pointing a finger at her suitcase. "A big huge spider!"

Sydney tried her hardest not to smile. As well as her looks, her daughter had inherited her arachnophobia. "Where is it?" She asked after inspecting the suitcase and finding no trace of a spider.

"It must have run away," Cory reasoned. She had seen the spider, she knew she had.

"I'm sure it did," Sydney answered, patiently.

"You know, I like spiders," Vaughn said suddenly.

Both girls' gazes turned to him, one in shock, the other in a small glare.

"You do?" Cory asked, meekly. Liking the elephants was okay in her mind but spiders? Gross.

Vaughn smiled and nodded. "Yeah, my dad used to like them," He answered, sitting on the edge of the bed next to the suitcase. Cory, after glancing towards the suitcase she was still convinced held a spider, came up to him and rest her hand on his knee, watching him with curious eyes. Sydney watched, with a raised eyebrow. This was his test with Cory.

"Why's that?" Cory asked, scratching at her arm right below the elbow idly.

He seemed to sense that Sydney was testing him because he didn't look at her. "He said they were good luck."

Sydney had to hold back a snort. He'd told her the exact same thing in the first year of their marriage.

"But they're icky," Cory reasoned stubbornly.

"I wouldn't say that," He answered diplomatically. "You apparently got your arachnophobia from your mother."

"Arachne…what?" Cory asked.

"Arachnophobia," He repeated for her. "It's an unexplained fear of spiders."

"But they're icky. That's why I don't like them." She replied.

"Do you know why you hate them besides them being icky?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No…"

"Then it's arachnophobia." He concluded.

Cory thought about it for a moment before turning her curious eyes to Sydney. "Is it Mommy?"

Sydney glanced over Cory's shoulder to Vaughn, wondering how the hell he had handled that so well before answering. Cory really did like him. "Yes, it is."

Cory nodded and turned back to Vaughn. "They aren't really good luck, are they?" She asked, still a little hesitant about that. No way were those icky stupid bugs good luck.

"They are," Vaughn insisted. "They keep bad things from happening."

"Like what?" Cory challenged, scratching her arm again.

Sydney had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. If she knew Vaughn, or the old Vaughn which she hoped still lurked somewhere in this new Vaughn, then she knew what he was going to do.

"Tickling," Vaughn answered. Cory didn't have the time to react before he was tickling her mercilessly. She shrieked with laughter and a nostalgic smile crossed Sydney's face. Vaughn had loved to tickle her til she begged for mercy. When she thought about it, it was one of the things that had made her fall in love with him.

"She's only six, Michael, go easy on her." Claire said from the doorway behind Sydney. She was trying to hide a smile and her eyes were dancing with laughter, Sydney noticed. Apparently, she had forgotten about her fight with Vaughn less than ten minutes ago.

Vaughn abruptly stopped his tickling attack on Cory and she stopped laughing with a happy sigh. "Grande-mere!" She cried, running from Vaughn to her grandmother. "Are you mad at Daddy?"

Claire looked down at Cory and shook her head. "No…a little annoyed but it's nothing."

Sydney and Vaughn exchanged a look. Annoyed in Claire terms meant mad.

"Out of curiosity," Vaughn started, after swallowing hard. "Where's Trish?"

"In her room," Claire answered. That meant Trish was moping about being yelled at by her nephew that had been missing for six years.

"Cory, what is wrong with your arm?" Sydney asked, changing the subject abruptly. That was the third time she'd seen her daughter scratching at the spot below her elbow in the past five minutes.

Cory shrugged. "I dunno. It itches."

Sydney's eyes narrowed as she beckoned Cory over to her. Cory went, still scratching at her arm. When she was in reaching distance, Sydney grabbed her daughter's arm and pulled up the sleeve. A slight gasp escaped her lips.

On the spot below Cory's elbow was an abrasion.

It looked like…well, it looked like she had been bitten.

"Where did you get this?" She asked.

Cory shrugged again. "I dunno. It just started itching."

"When?"

"Awhile ago." Cory answered.

Vaughn got off the bed and came over to the pair, taking Cory's arm out of Sydney's grasp and lifting it to be inspected. "Did one of grande-mere's cats bite you?" He asked after a moment. Claire had a few cats around the house. And one of them in particular that she'd had for years was a nasty one that would bite if he wasn't left alone.

"Louis wouldn't do that," Claire protested. Despite both Vaughn and Sydney's insistence that the cat was mean, she refused to believe it.

Vaughn shushed her and waited for Cory's answer.

Cory was thinking about it as hard as she could. "Not that I know of," She answered finally.

"It looks like Louis bit her," Sydney agreed.

"He could have done it when she was sleeping," Vaughn added.

Sydney nodded, "There's a bottle of antiseptic in my suitcase. Can you go get it?"

Vaughn nodded and let go of Cory's arm gently before going to Sydney's suitcase. If there was one that he hated about his mother's house besides that damn cat was that she didn't stock any first aide supplies. She thought that she was immune to everything and therefore so was everyone else.

"Claire…I told you to keep that cat away from Cory," Sydney said turning on Claire, her eyes snapping.

"I did," Claire answered. "He's been in my room since you arrived yesterday."

"Then how'd he bite her?" Sydney asked.

"He didn't," Claire replied. "He couldn't have."

"This bite says differently," Sydney retorted gesturing towards Cory's arm. Vaughn came back over and handed Sydney the bottle of antiseptic and a couple cotton balls he'd grabbed from her suitcase as well. She gave him a smile as her thanks and dabbed one of the cotton balls with the antiseptic. "This is probably going to hurt." She warned.

Cory nodded, bracing herself for the pain.

"Wanna hold my hand?" Vaughn offered.

Cory was a little surprised the offer and nodded again, taking her father's hand.

A smile passed through Sydney's eyes as she realized how good with Cory Vaughn was. She wasn't looking forward to having to put the antiseptic on Cory's arm and winced along with Cory when the cotton ball touched her arm. Normally, Cory made more protests than she did at the moment but Vaughn squeezed her hand reassuring and that quieted the majority of Cory's whimpers.

A couple minutes later, much to the appreciation of Cory, Sydney took the cotton ball and capped the antiseptic. "There, we'll have to bandage it later."

Cory nodded, happy to have the stinging liquid away from her arm. "Okay."

"Syd?" Vaughn said quietly.

Sydney turned her attention to Vaughn. "Yeah?"

"We should probably get going," He said low enough for only her and Cory to hear.

Sydney glanced down at Cory, noted her hopeful expression, and then looked back to Vaughn. "You're right."

-

"_Vaughn! You didn't turn that phone off?" Sydney asked exasperated. First it had taken them forever to get out of their apartment because he'd wanted to "sleep in" and now his cell phone was ringing on a crowded plane with a couple whining babies. _

_Vaughn threw her a sheepish look. "Sorry." He tried, grabbing the phone and pulling it out of his pocket. _

"_Who is it?" She asked with a heavy sigh. _

_He frowned slightly at the caller ID. "No one," He answered, turning off the phone like she asked._

"_You think that'll get you out of having to tell me?" She teased._

"_I was hoping," He answered. _

_She laughed. "Well, I can let it slid if that phone stays off for the rest of the vacation." _

"_Sounds like a deal to me." He answered. Anything to keep her from asking questions about who was calling. If he could help it, she'd never know. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized what a stupid wish that was. _

"_You're such a push over," She mocked. _

"_Only when it comes to you," He defended. Well, that much was true. She was the only one who really had power over him._

"_Well, don't I feel special." She replied sarcastically. _

"_You should," He told her. "Very special." While was talking, he reached over the armrest that separated their chairs and grabbed her hand. _

_This action elicited a smile from her and she squeezed his hand in return. "I was being sarcastic before." She told him quietly._

"_Could have fooled me," He answered. _

_She snorted. "Yeah, right."_

"_It's the truth," He protested. "You lie like a dead dog."_

_She laughed. "Well, for one, thanks for that." What a nice thing to be told by your fiancé thatyou're a lying dog. What could be more romantic? She could think of a couple things. "And for another, the expression's 'lie like a dirty dog'."_

_He shook his head. "Nope, dead dog."_

"_Where did you get that from?" She questioned. Seriously, where did he come up with this stuff?_

"_A dead dog lies more than a dirty dog," He explained. "It makes perfect sense."_

_It took her a moment for her to grasp the cheesiness of his joke. "Oh God, Vaughn." She rolled her eyes. "You are such a dork."_

"_Coming from the woman who was a genius at nineteen," He replied. _

_She gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "Shut up."_

"_Make me," He challenged._

"_Oh I will," She answered. _

"_How?" He asked skeptically. _

"_Like this." Before he could protest –not that he would- she leaned over and kissed him._

_-_

"Is she okay?" Vaughn asked when Sydney walked back into the cabin.

After they had collected his things –meaning a suitcase he lived out of for most of the year- from the car he'd borrowed from a contact to use while in France, he'd called one of his mysterious contacts to arrange a private plane for them. Sydney noticed that he seemed to have more contacts than she remembering him to. She also noticed that whether by conscious decision or not, he was more secretive with how he worked than he'd ever been.

A few minutes after they took off, Cory started complaining of not feeling good. Sydney had given her the option of lying down on the bed in the small bedroom on the plane. Unlike CIA planes, whoever owned this plane spared no expense. There was a bathroom, bedroom with a bed and dresser, mini bar, a couple booths, even a couch. It reminded Sydney of the plane that had housed Server 47 back in her SD-6 days.

Cory'd accepted the offer instantly. For the past ten minutes, Sydney had been tucking their daughter in.

She looked up when Vaughn asked his question. "She's just tired."

"How's the bite look?" He asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"Pretty good," She answered, quelling his fears. "It should be gone within a week."

"That's good."

She nodded her agreement. "Yeah it is," She murmured, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "What were you talking about with Claire earlier? What aren't you telling me?" When she noticed his hesitation, she added, "You promised to tell me everything."

"I know," He said, running his hand through his hair. "Okay…alright…you're not going to like this." He warned.

"I'll take my chances."

"Right," He said, opening his mouth to tell her what he'd been hiding.

* * *

Next chapter: The Explanation Part II


	14. The Explanation Part II

A/N: I think I am going to have to put a spoiler warning on this story. Mostly cause I'm using some stuff that happens in season four in this story now and I don't want to spoil anyone without warning them first. So yeah, there be spoilers in my story now. You have been warned.

* * *

"Vaughn, I'm waiting." Sydney said as he continued to stay silent.

"I know," Vaughn answered, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm just trying to figure out how to word this."

"Well think faster," She answered impatiently.

He dared to laugh and she smiled reluctantly. "Alright okay, this isn't going to come out right at all and you're going to have to wait until I explain everything before you judge okay?"

Sydney nodded.

Vaughn took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Part, well… a really big part of why I was working with your mother behind your back was because the Covenant wanted you as an agent, as assassin more specially."

She stared at him for a long time. "W-what!" She wasn't even sure what the hell the Covenant was but by the sound of things, it was another terrorist group. Just what she needed. "You told me it was because of your sister."

"It was a part," He answered slowly, clearly doing some very fast thinking.

"So you lied?" She asked accusingly.

"No," He responded immediately. "I just didn't tell you the whole truth."

"That's lying, Vaughn," She snapped.

"I'm aware of that." He answered carefully, suppressing the need to add 'now' to the end of his sentence. That wouldn't help him any.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. He didn't tell her that she was sought after by a terrorist group to become an assassin. What the hell was wrong with him? "Why? Why me?"

"You were a great agent Syd," He said softly. "The CIA wasn't the only one who realized that."

Well, he had a point about that. And she'd quit right after marrying him. Ironic, no? "You knew that they were trying to recruit me." It was more of a statement than a question but he wasn't sure which one she wanted it to be.

"Yes," He said, deciding to determine it be a question and just go with it.

"And you didn't tell me!" She cried.

"I didn't think it was important." As soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, he realized how badly it had sounded.

"Wasn't important?" She shrieked. What was going on in his head for him to think that wasn't important? "Are you that naïve or just plain stupid?"

"Syd-" He started.

She interrupted him. "You said that there was more to the story and I shouldn't judge until you explain. So explain." The look in her eyes left no room for question.

**-break-**

"_Vaughn," Sydney mumbled sleepily. The ringing of his cursed cell phone had woken her up for the thousandth time. She wanted to smash it. She really and truly did. Didn't the CIA realize that she needed her sleep because she was pregnant and that calling Vaughn in the middle of the night wasn't going to let that happen? "Turn it off."_

"_I will, after I take this call." Vaughn answered, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead, brushing some hair from her eyes in the process. _

"_You're impossible," She murmured. _

"_I know. This'll just take a sec." He said, getting out of the bed and walking out to the living room before turning the phone on. "I told you not to call on this phone." He said before the other person could get a word out. "They track the calls."_

"_Not this one," came the reply from a melodic yet hardened voice. _

"_Oh," He asked, not believing them. "And you're sure of this?"_

"_Yes," The voice answered harshly._

"_Why are you calling anyway? Why not wait for the usual meet?" Their contacts where scheduled to meet in two days, and swap information. Why couldn't whatever she had to talk about wait until then? _

"_Because this is a little more important," The voice answered, her tone back to being melodious again._

"_What?" He asked warily. _

"_The Covenant has decided that it's not longer worth their trouble to have Sydney as an assassin. She's good but not that good."_

_He was a silent for a long time. Was she lying to him? That wasn't something he would put past her but then again, Sydney was her daughter. She wouldn't lie about something like that. Hopefully. But then again, this was the same woman who had shot her daughter in the shoulder._

"_Agent Vaughn? Did you hear me?" Irina asked, tired of the silence. _

"_Yeah," Vaughn answered, licking his lips. "Is that all you called for?" _

"_No," She answered after a moment's hesitation. _

_A frown touched his brow, "What then?" _

_The line was silent for a solid sixty seconds before Irina replied with, "I have received intel that they have shifted their attentions to you." _

"_What's that supposed to mean?" He asked though he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear what that meant. _

_Irina hesitated more. She obviously didn't like having to tell him this. "There is a contract on your life Agent Vaughn," She told him with a forced even voice. "And if the assassin they have hired finds Sydney within the vicinity of you; they have the orders to carry out the contract on her life as well." _

_This proved to silence Vaughn. So because he tried to keep his wife and child safe from the Covenant, they were going to kill him and most likely Sydney as well. Those sons of bitches. God, how was he going to explain this to Sydney? She was going to hate him, he knew her that well. He couldn't say to her that if an assassin showed up on their doorstep in the middle of the night that he knew about it and just neglected to tell her about it. _

"_I have an offer for you." Irina said breaking him out of his thoughts. _

"_What would that be?" Vaughn asked. Even he thought he sounded far too calm. _

"_You leave L.A. and Sydney, and I can guarantee that nothing will happen to her or your child." _

**-break-**

Sydney stared at him long after he'd finished explaining it to her. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that a terrorist group had wanted her for an assassin but for him to add this on top of it? She was going to be suffering a mental overload before she knew it.

At last, she licked her lips and swallowed hard. "They put a contract on your life?" She asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Yes," Vaughn answered evenly with a small nod.

She was going to ask him about the contract on her life, but he'd already told her about that. A fact that had only came back to mind when he told her again.

"Why didn't you _tell_ me and the CIA?" She demanded. "They could have put us in a witness protection."

"Would you have wanted to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?" He pointed out.

"If it meant that I had you and Cory, _yes_!" She shot back.

He licked his lips and took a breath before answering. "Are you saying that because you truly care for me or because you want to change the past?"

Her eyes narrowed. How dare he even suggest such a thing? She was on the Goddamn plane with _him_, wasn't she? "Don't change the subject," She hissed. "You made a shitty choice!"

"I made a mistake, Sydney," He countered, "several of them. And I'm sorry about that. I regret it every f-cking day."

Sydney stared at him with cold eyes. She had no doubt that he regretted his decisions and somewhere deep down, she wanted to forgive him for that but she was embittered by his actions and she knew it.

"Syd?" Vaughn asked softly, breaking the silence.

"I can't do it Vaughn," She whispered. "I just can't do it. You kept something from me, something I had every right to know about. Why'd you do it? Why couldn't you just _tell_ me?" She was near tears now and he saw that.

He got up from his chair and closed the small distance between them, hugging her tightly and giving her the desperately needed shoulder to cry on. "I should've told you. I know that. But I wanted to protect you. I didn't want you to worry, and lay awake at night. I love you too much to put you through that."

She nodded, silent tears falling down her cheeks. She wanted to tell him that she'd lain awake countless nights after he'd disappeared wondering what the hell had happened to him. Without really meaning to, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight grip. God, she'd missed being in his arms. She'd spent a great many nights awake just missing his embrace too. Being in his arms again made her come to the very simple conclusion that forgiveness wasn't what she was lacking. It was trust.

"I know," She whispered. "I know you do."

"But?" He prompted.

"You still kept something from me," She sighed, taking a deep breath. "And…I can…forgive you for that…" She whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. "But I _cannot_ trust you."

Just the fact that she said she forgave him when she really didn't have to made him disregard the trust thing. They could rebuild the trust that had been lost between them. All that really mattered to him was her forgiveness.

"I don't expect you to," He told her. And that was the truth. She was starting to sound more like the Sydney he remembered and that was a very good thing. "You're sounding more like the old Sydney."

"I wasn't aware I'd changed," She replied sardonically.

A soft smile appeared at the corners of his mouth and he explained to her exactly how much she'd changed. "That doesn't sound much like you," He finished.

She nodded and reluctantly pulled herself out of his arms. "Well," She sighed. "I'm tired of fighting. I just want to throw up my hands and say 'come what may'."

He stared at her, her admission shocking him into a silence. _That_ was definitely _not_ the Sydney he knew. "You can't give up." He told her softly.

"Can't I?" She responded. "I know this is stupid. I know it makes me weak. I know I should slap you and leave…" She trailed off, her eyes filling with tears again. Slowly she took in a deep breath and continued on a new subject, "I don't want to have to fight normality anymore. A normal person would walk away from you… but… I don't want to do that."

He didn't want to misinterpret her words though, if he was hearing her correctly that would mean…

"Syd?" He asked quietly, fighting to keep a hold on his emotions. "What are you saying?"

"We don't have to go back to L.A.," She told him avoiding the question. "If you want to live in Sweden because of your sister…" She paused, licking her lips. "Then Cory and I will be right there with you."

"Syd-" Vaughn started to protest.

Sydney interrupted him, her brown eyes flashing with determination. "You won't change my mind," She told him fiercely, "I just want you to answer one question; why didn't you leave a goodbye?"

**-break-**

_A silent sigh escaped Vaughn as he tried to force himself for the thousandth time to get up out of the chair, grab his suitcase and walk out of that door. _

_Easer said than done. _

_She was almost six months pregnant now and glowing more with every passing day. Being a mother suited her. He could tell. She would be a perfect mother. Well, she was going to have to seeing as she was going to have to act as both mother and father. _

_God, if there was any other way; he'd do it in an instant. But the more he thought about it, the more Irina's plan made sense to him and it turned from being a difficult choice to the only choice tripling in difficulty. It still seemed surreal to him that because he had tried to save his wife from the Covenant's grasp that now they were all being punished in a completely different way. _

_With another sigh and a great deal of effort, he stood up from the chair he'd moved to the edge of their bed so he could watch her sleep. Just standing up made him start to rethink everything all over again. _

No! You have to do this! For Sydney and your child!

_He brought up his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, trying to silence the doubts in him. This had to happen. If Sydney and their child were ever going to have a future, this had to happen. He knew that but that didn't mean he had to like it. _

_After licking his lips nervously, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, brushing some of her hair off of her forehead in the process. "I love you Syd," He whispered against her skin before lifting his hand to touch her protruding stomach gingerly, "And this one too…" He added. She didn't stir in her sleep and in the back of his mind, he thanked her for that. For her to wake up would only make this harder. _

_With one final heavy sigh, he moved the chair back to its original position next to the wall, grabbed his suitcase from where he put it by the door and with a final glance at Sydney's sleeping body, he walked out of her life, not knowing when he'd be able to see her again._

**-break-**

"It had to look like you have been abandoned," Vaughn explained. "I trust your acting skills but…"

"Irina didn't want to leave anything to chance," Sydney filled in for him.

He nodded. "I sent you an email."

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, "What?"

"Three months after I left," He informed her, "after Cory was born. I sent you an email disguised as junk mail."

"I delete junk mail without looking at it," She admitted softly. Noah had tried to do the same thing years ago and she had deleted that as well. You'd think she would have learned from that mistake.

"I figured," He told her.

"How's that?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Because I told you about the Covenant and all that that entails in the email," He replied in an even tone.

"Oh," She murmured looking down at their feet. She was going to check every junk mail that came across her inbox from now on.

A silence fell between them as she struggled to sort everything he had told her in the last half hour. She hadn't been lying when she said that she just wanted to give up the struggle she'd had going with normality. She hadn't been lying when she said that she forgave him. She hadn't been lying when she said that she'd live in Sweden with him if that's what he wanted. That much she knew. Now it was just processing everything and tucking it away for her memory.

"Tell me about your sister," She requested suddenly surprising him.

He quickly recovered and asked as calmly as he could, "What do you want to know?"

"Anything you can or want to tell me." She answered.

"Well…" He started, deciding on where to start. "She's three years older than me. It was before my dad met my maman-"

"Does she know?" She interrupted. "Claire I mean, that you have a sister?"

He shook his head, "No… she doesn't. My dad never told her and it's not my place to do so." A slight frown line appeared between her brows and he added, "Lexy asked that she'd be the one to tell Claire."

"Is Lexy short for Alexandria?" She asked, assuming that this Lexy (Alexandria) was Vaughn's sister. She was right for he nodded. "That's a pretty name."

"It fits the woman," He replied. "She looks like you."

This surprised her. She was sure that nothing else could have surprised her anymore. Well, she stood corrected. "She does?"

"Well, sort of," He corrected. "She has the same hair color as you, you're both the same height, the same high cheekbones and pointed chin, but that's where the similarities stop now that I think about it. Her skin's not as fair, and her eyes are grey instead of brown."

"You're going into very great detail," She teased.

"I'm just reciting what she told me to tell you," He defended.

Again, she was surprised when she thought that nothing else could have surprised her. "She told you to say all that? Why?"

"She figured that if you ever let me within speaking distance of you again, that you'd want to know about her. She didn't want me to 'mess up her image'." He explained.

Sydney laughed. "She sounds like a real character."

"She is," Vaughn admitted, "but you'll like her."

**-break-**

"_What are you going to do first?" _

_Vaughn blinked and turned his gaze to his sister, her question finally registering on him. "What do you mean –first?" _

"_The Covenant's been dismantled for a couple weeks now," Lexy explained. "I would have thought that you would have rushed back to L.A. and your family." _

_He sighed and fidgeted in his chair. They were eating lunch at an outdoor café in Stockholm where Lexy lived for years now. It had been her idea. She said that she wouldn't see her little brother for a long time and she wanted to make the most of time he was there. "It's more complicated than that." _

"_Don't get vague with me, Michael," She ordered. "You've told me everything and in case you have forgotten, I have been there for a lot of your problems. She'll forgive you." _

_He snorted. "You don't know Sydney if you think that." _

_She gave him a stern look. "Hiding out here in Stockholm isn't going to solve any of your problems." _

"_But it'll delay them for a while," He muttered. _

"_Michael," She sighed. "You're my brother and because of that, I love you but you are acting like a scared little child right now!" _

_A smile crossed his face despite the seriousness of the conversation. "I suppose I am," He admitted. _

"_Of course you are," She agreed. "Go to L.A. and Sydney and Cory." _

"_Easier said than done," He murmured. _

"_Says the man who won't go back home and face the woman he left and their child." _

"_You're too willful for your own good, Lex." He teased. _

"_I know I am," She answered. "Now go to L.A." _

"_Just like that?" _

"_You've spent the past six years moving around at a moment's notice, this can't be too much of a stretch for you," She told him wryly. _

_Vaughn chuckled, "You'd be surprised." _

"_I'm sure I would be," Lexy replied. "Now go to her." _

**-break-**

"Mommy… my head hurts," Cory murmured from the backseat of the car. Again, once they had landed, Vaughn had called a mysterious contact and ten minutes later they had a car to use for their full disposal.

Sydney bit her lip, throwing a sideways glance towards Vaughn as she turned around in her seat to look at her daughter, "You think you can make it for another five minutes?" She asked softly.

Cory nodded, closing her eyes against the glare of the streetlights. "It really hurts."

Sydney's heart –and Vaughn's- broke with that little sentence. "I know, sweetie. We're almost there." She threw a look towards Vaughn asking for him to back her up.

"Did Mommy ever tell you that you have an Aunt Lexy?" Vaughn asked.

Sydney stared at him. And this was going to help with Cory's headache _how_?

"No…" Cory answered meekly.

"Well, you do have an Aunt Lexy. My sister," Vaughn explained. "We're going to see her."

This perked Cory up a little. "We are?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yep, and she can't wait to meet you."

"Really?" Cory inquired, sounding curious rather than in pain now.

Vaughn nodded again. "She can get rid of headaches in an instant, you know." He told her.

"How can she do that?"

"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a secret anymore," He answered.

"But I wanna know!" Cory whined.

"We'll just have to wait to see if Aunt Lexy wants to trust you with her secret," He replied, diplomatically.

Cory pouted. She even went so far as to open her eyes and give her father the puppy dog pout in the rearview mirror but he still refused to tell her. His ability to distract Cory from her headache made Sydney smile. Fatherhood suited him, she concluded.

True to Sydney's prediction, Vaughn stopped the car in front of a townhouse little more than three minutes later. Vaughn handled their luggage while Sydney carried Cory because once the car had stopped; her daughter's headache had grown worse. Sydney couldn't help but wonder if the headache was connected to the bite on her child's arm and made the mental note to get a medically trained person to take a look at it sometime very soon.

Vaughn glanced to Sydney as he rung the doorbell. Their eyes met and he looked just as worried about Cory as she felt. At least she wasn't alone in that.

"Just a second, I'm coming!" called a woman from inside. And two seconds later, the woman, brunette and tall like Sydney, opened the door. She stared at them confused for a split second before the confusion disappeared, replaced by a wry smile.

"Well, I'll be damned."

* * *

Next chapter: Sisters and zoos


	15. Sisters and Zoos

"Are you going to keep us standing here all night?" Vaughn asked, breaking the silence.

Lexy smiled, rolling her eyes. "Can you blame me for being shocked?"

"I thought nothing shocked you," Vaughn answered.

Sydney took this time to study the woman who was part of the reason why her husband left her. He was right, they did look alike. More so than she imagined. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to hate the woman. It wasn't her fault Vaughn was a moron.

When she shifted her weight and adjusted Cory in her arms, Lexy turned her attention back to her. "You must be Sydney," She said pleasantly. "Come in," She added beckoning them in.

Sydney nodded, the corners of her lips twitching towards smile as she did as requested. "And this is Cory," She added, glancing down at her daughter.

"Can you really cure headaches in an instant?" Cory asked quietly instinctively clinging to her mother tighter.

"Of course I can," Lexy answered smiling at her niece while she closed the door behind the party.

"How?" Cory asked next.

"That's a secret," replied her aunt.

"Daddy said that you'd tell me," Cory replied, glancing at Vaughn.

"He did, did he?" Lexy asked. Vaughn gave his sister a slight nod when she looked towards him. "Then I'll have to tell you," She concluded.

Cory smiled happily and picked her head up off of her mother's shoulder. "How?" She asked.

"How much does your head hurt?" Lexy asked.

"It hurt a lot before but now it don't so much," Cory answered after a pause.

"Hmm," Lexy mused tapping her chin. "I think you need some chicken noodle soup." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Sydney raised an eyebrow so she added, "If mum says it's alright."

This brought a small smile to Sydney's face. "It's okay with me."

Cory tilted her head in confusion. "How is chicken noodle going to help?" She asked doubtfully.

"You haven't had my chicken noodle," Lexy answered easily. "It works miracles for headaches."

Sydney had the feeling that this special soup of hers was nothing more than canned soup. Only Cory was thinking that it would heal her aching head. It was a mind over matter sort of thing. When she glanced at Vaughn, he nodded reading the question in her eyes.

Cory was still a little hesitant. "Oh-kay…" She relented.

"If it doesn't work, you got some free food and your mum can kick my butt," Lexy answered.

Cory giggled and nodded her agreement.

Sydney smiled at her before she put her down in one of the chairs at the dining room table. She had intended on sitting as well but her cell phone and whoever was calling her had other ideas. "Oh, it's my work," She sighed. "I'll be right back."

"Use the office at the end of the hall," Lexy told her.

Sydney nodded her thanks and set off down the hall. "Hello?..."

After her voice had died off, Cory turned to Vaughn who had sat down at the table with her. "How old is Aunt Lexy?"

From the kitchen, Lexy's laughter was apparent. "Don't answer that Michael."

"Older than me," Vaughn answered as a compromise.

"How old are you then?" Cory asked.

"Older than Mommy," He answered.

"How old's Mommy?" His daughter asked.

"Is all you do is ask questions?" Lexy teased setting a bowl of soup down in front of her niece before taking a seat at the table herself.

"No…" Cory grinned impishly and picked up the spoon, diving into the food right away. She really wanted to get rid of her headache. That and she hadn't eaten dinner yet.

"What did I say about lying?" Sydney asked hearing the tail end of the conversation. From about 'old's Mommy' on.

As her mother took the last spot at the table, Cory shrugged and said, "Do it?"

"No," Sydney chided though smiling. "Eat your soup."

"Yes Mommy," Cory replied going back to her food.

After about ten minutes, Lexy asked, "How's your head?"

Cory opened her mouth to respond immediately. But she changed her mind and closed it soon after, frowning slightly. "It's all better," She answered finally sounding in awe. "Wow…"

Lexy smiled at her, "Wait until you learn how to cure a sore throat."

"Tomorrow maybe," Sydney put in. "Right now, everyone under the age of ten has to go to bed." Her daughter's headache might have been gone but she still wanted her to rest.

Lexy caught the look she was being given by Sydney and said, "You can use the first bedroom on your right." Sydney smiled her thanks.

"Aww," Cory whined.

"Bed," Sydney repeated firmly.

"Can I get a story?" Cory asked puppy eyed.

Sydney smiled and nodded. "Come on," She said, standing up and offering her hand. Cory jumped off her chair and took it. "We'll be right back," She told the other two before heading off down the hall with Cory.

"She's a sweet little girl," Lexy commented, glancing at her brother. "A lot like her mother."

"I'll explain everything," Vaughn told her. "Just don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're highly amused and you just found out a juicy secret that you're going to blab to all the neighbors," He answered.

She just laughed.

**-break-**

"_Don't look at me like that."_

_Lexy sighed and looked at the older woman warily anyway, "Why'd you have to tell him that? That there's a hit on his life. You know as well as I do that there isn't one. And the one on Sydney's isn't there anymore." _

"_You know why," was the only response._

"_Because of you and that damned attachment you have to the Chosen One," Lexy muttered under her breath. Sighing she looked back up at the other woman, "What makes you think this child's the one Rambaldi's talking about? You don't even know if their child is a girl." She pointed out._

"_Don't be naïve," answered the woman, avoiding the first question. "Derevko women always have girls."_

"_Always?" Lexy snorted rhetorically. "She's been a Bristow and a Vaughn, maybe that tradition'll change," She added with a hint of bitterness in her voice. _

"_She's still a Derevko, whether she likes it or not," said the other woman firmly. "This child will be a girl." _

"_You know, this is my niece's life you're messing with," Lexy remarked. Her employer thought for some reason that the Chosen One needed to suffer in her life for her to become what she needed to be. Load of rubbish._

"_And my granddaughter's and you don't see me faltering, do you?" Irina demanded, her eyes flashing with anger. _

"_You also shot your daughter in the shoulder," Lexy pointed out. _

"_That was for her protection, and so is this," Irina remarked dismissively._

"_I think this is just some experiment of yours," Lexy told her, ignoring the older woman's remark. "You failed with test subjects number one and two and now you're hoping that number three will succeed. Third time's the charm, right? That's not going to happen as long as Sydney has breath in her to fight." She knew enough about the daughter Irina left behind all those years ago to know that she protected those she loved to the death._

"_That is none of your business." Irina snapped. "All you have to do is be a supporting sister to your half brother." _

"_You're sick, Irina. Sometimes I wonder how anyone could give a damn about you." Lexy hissed, getting up to leave. She couldn't stand to be around the woman any longer._

"_Give my best to Yelena," Irina called over her shoulder. _

_Lexy hesitated, almost turning back around but she ground her back teeth and kept walking._

**-break-**

"You're going to make it up to her, right? Being gone all these years." Lexy asked.

Vaughn sighed. "When I figure out a good way," He answered, "of course."

"You went back to her not knowing how you were going to make it up to her?" She asked.

"Wasn't it you that practically forced me to go back?" He questioned.

She waved her hand dismissively. "You know better than to listen to me."

"Well now I do," He teased.

She laughed softly, "Out of curiosity, how _did_ you get to her to forgive you?"

"When I figure that one out, I'll let you know," He replied. "And didn't you tell me she'd forgive me?"

She shrugged. "Well, I was right."

"Like always," He murmured.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," She disregarded with another wave of her hand.

"Stop being humble, it doesn't fit you," He commanded lightly.

"Vaughn!" Sydney called, interrupting their conversation. "Can you come here for a sec?"

"Sure!" He yelled back.

Lexy smirked. "See? She has you whipped again already."

"I wasn't ever whipped," He defended. "Alright, maybe a little," He resigned, getting up from the table. "Stop giving me that smirk," He added over his shoulder as he headed down the hall towards the room where Cory and Sydney were. "Yeah?"

"Cory wants a goodnight kiss," Sydney informed him softly.

Vaughn smiled. "That I can do," He answered more for Cory's benefit than Sydney's. She gave him a quick smile before moving over so he could sit on the edge of the bed next to his daughter.

Cory hindered him from straightening back up after he'd kissed her on the forehead by throwing her arms around his neck. "I love you Daddy," She whispered giving him a kiss too.

"I love you too, sweetheart," Vaughn answered unwinding her arms from his neck. "Night."

"Night," Cory sighed curling up with her pillow and promptly closing her eyes.

Sydney watched the whole scene, a smile playing at her lips. "It's not fair how you're so good with her," She whispered when they were back in the hallway.

He shrugged. "We need to get that bite of hers cleaned properly in the morning," He told her.

She nodded. "Something doesn't feel right about it."

"About what?" Lexy interrupted.

Sydney gave Vaughn an exasperated look before turning to his sister. "One of Claire's cats bit Cory." Something along the lines of a mix of panic and triumph flashed through Lexy's eyes. Sydney blinked and it was gone.

"I have the stuff to clean it," Lexy answered. "For the morning of course."

"Of course," Sydney answered a little stiffly. She was pretty sure she hadn't imagined that look in the older woman's eyes.

"Do you want separate rooms?" Lexy asked next.

Sydney glanced at the man who was technically still her husband. He shrugged silently telling her that it was her choice. "We're both adults," She answered. "I think we can handle sleeping in the same bed. There's no need to mess up two more rooms." Truth was, she wanted to have a little talk with Vaughn and if sharing the same room with him was the only way she was going to get it, then so be it.

Lexy cocked an eyebrow slightly. "If you want," She replied gesturing towards the door across the hall from Cory's room. "G'night."

"Goodnight," Vaughn and Sydney answered simultaneously.

Sydney waited until the other woman had disappeared into her own room before grabbing Vaughn and all but shoving him into the room they were going to share. "We need to talk," She said quietly.

"About what?" He asked a little confused.

"Did you see that look in Lexy's eyes?" She demanded.

He frowned. "What look?"

She sighed. "I don't know how to describe it. She looked panicked yet happy at the same time about something," She explained. "And it was when we were talking about Cory's bite."

"Lexy wouldn't be happy about Cory being bitten," Vaughn defended.

"I'm not saying that she would be," Sydney countered. "But I know I saw it. What if she's planning something that involves Cory?" If that didn't sound paranoid, he knew what did.

"I believe you," He answered. "I just can't see Lexy doing that."

"How well do you trust her?" Sydney questioned quietly. "Enough to gamble your daughter's life?"

"You're being paranoid," He told her gently.

She sighed and pressed her hand against her forehead. "Yeah, okay, I am." She relented. "But I just met her, I don't trust her like you do and I probably won't for a long time."

"I don't expect you to," He answered daring to kiss her on the cheek.

She gave him a half smile. "We should probably get some sleep."

"Good idea

"There's a zoo in Stockholm, right?" She asked out of the blue.

He nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Because if I know Cory, she's going to demand that we go to the zoo tomorrow," She answered.

"She really likes her elephants, doesn't she?" Vaughn asked.

Sydney smiled, "She reminds me of someone else I know."

**-break-**

_Sydney sighed and looked over at her boyfriend. "I'm bored," She informed him. _

_Vaughn laughed and set down his newspaper to look at her. "Then entertain yourself," He told her. _

_She smirked at him, leaning over to finger his loosened tie. "I could do that," She answered her eyes gleaming mischievously._

"_Not with me," He chided gently. "I'm tired." _

_She pouted and dropped his tie, "Boring Vaughn." _

"_Well, I am so sorry that I'm tired because your father decided to work me into a hole," He retorted. _

_She gave him an apologetic look. "I think he's trying to scare you off or something," She commented. _

"_I wouldn't put it past him," He murmured. _

_Now she rolled her eyes at him and picked up the remote. If he wasn't going to entertain her, she could find something on the TV to. Something being the key word. _

"_Wait…" He said when she flipped past a channel. "Go back." _

_With a slight roll of her eyes, she did. "This one?" The Weather Channel? How… even more boring that channel surfing. _

"_One more," He insisted. _

_She did and looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "The Animal Planet?" She asked. _

"_Elephants," He answered gesturing towards the TV. _

_She laughed and tossed the remote off to the side as she leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. "Giraffes are better," She murmured after a long silence. _

_Vaughn chuckled and shook his head. "Nope, elephants are the best." _

_Sydney laughed as well, "You and your elephants."_

**-break-**

"Mommy, can we go to the zoo today?" Cory asked at breakfast the next morning. After the soup, a good night's sleep, and a proper cleaning of her wound, it seemed like she had overcome whatever illness had caused her headache. She seemed like any other six year old.

Sydney sent Vaughn an 'I told you so' look and smiled at Cory. "I don't see why not."

"Do they have elephants there?" Cory asked.

Vaughn shook his head. "No, we're a little too far north to have elephants." Skansen, the zoo in Stockholm tended to feature animals more native to the Scandinavian region rather that importing animals from foreign countries. He'd only been there a couple times but Lexy, having spent some of her summers as a child in Stockholm was an old pro to the zoo.

"What do they have then?" Cory asked, frowning slightly.

"Wolverines, bears, elk, lynx, seal, there's the aquarium," Lexy answered when her brother gave her a glance. "And reindeer of course," She added.

"Like the ones that Santa has?" Cory asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Well, they don't fly," Lexy admitted. "But other than that, exactly like the ones that Santa has."

"Maybe you could give us the grand tour," Sydney suggested. Even with Vaughn's reassurances that his sister would never do anything that would hurt her niece, she was still apprehensive about the woman and it showed in her eyes.

Lexy shook her head. "I have some shopping to do."

"It can wait, can't it?" Vaughn disregarded. "You need a break, Lex."

She shook her head again. "No, I've put it off long enough. Maybe tomorrow we can visit the palace," She offered.

"There's a palace here?" Cory interrupted. "Is there a princess and a prince and everything?"

"Of course," Lexy laughed. "We can go tomorrow, I promise."

"Okay," Cory agreed happily.

Sydney frowned slightly at her sister-in-law's reluctance to join them at the zoo. Something wasn't right, she just couldn't place her finger on it. "Are you sure you don't want to join us?"

"Positive," Lexy answered a little too quickly for Sydney's tastes.

**-break-**

"Something doesn't feel right," Sydney murmured to Vaughn as they strolled along one of the pathways of the zoo. Cory had run a few paces ahead of them to go get a better look at the reindeer.

"You don't still think that Lexy's up to something do you?" Vaughn sighed, keeping his voice low. Neither wanted anyone to overhear their conversation.

"She lives in Stockholm," She answered. "And she couldn't wait til tomorrow to go shopping?"

He shrugged. "I'm not her babysitter. She doesn't have to explain her actions to me or you for that matter."

"I still think she's got a second agenda," She replied stubbornly.

"Well I don't," He answered.

"Maybe you're just blinded by the fact that she's your sister and you don't see things for how they really are?" She pointed out.

He sighed, glancing towards Cory to make sure she hadn't run off or something. "Don't let your anger towards me disillusion you against my sister," He requested.

Oh, she hadn't ever thought of that before. Maybe her bitterness towards him was finding an outlet in his sister. That was a different development. "I trust my instincts and their telling me something's not right."

"I trust your instincts too," He replied. "And most of the time they're right."

She gave him a dirty look before answering, "You're not seeing everything."

"And you're being paranoid," He countered.

"Mommy!" Cory interrupted their conversation by running back over to them and tugging on her mother's jacket. "Daddy, look!" She cried pointing towards one of the empty exhibits. "Elephants!"

Sydney frowned though she didn't let Cory see her frown as she looked to Vaughn. He looked back at her with a mirrored expression. "Sweetheart, there aren't any elephants," She answered.

"Yes there are," Cory insisted still pointing towards the empty exhibit.

Her parents didn't have the chance to argue with her anymore for a yelled command broke through the relative peace of the zoo. "Freeze!"

For Sydney, everything immediately slowed. Time itself seemed to stop. Surrounding them was a half dozen CIA agents, guns aimed towards her husband. Cory made a whimpering noise and clung to her mother. Numbly, Sydney reached down and picked her daughter up, cradling her arms as she watched the scene unfold.

It seemed surreal. How had they found them here in Stockholm? They hadn't told anyone where they were going and no one had seen them leave France. At least no one who could recognize them. She had left France with him and their daughter to prevent this from happening. But here they were, handcuffing Vaughn and reading him his rights.

"Sydney," One of the agents interrupted her thoughts as he pulled off his mask. It was her father. "Are you and Cory alright?"

Sydney nodded dumbly but didn't look at him. She was too busy staring at Vaughn. "Dad, I don't understand…"

"You know why we have to take him in," Jack answered. "Uncle Sam has some questions for him."

"No Dad," She protested. "You can't."

"I would've thought that you would have been overjoyed to see him taken into custody," Her father replied.

"I'm not," She snapped. "Please, Dad, you have to let him go."

"I can't do that Sydney," He answered signaling to his team members. "Get him onto the plane as soon as you can."

One of the team members nodded and signaled to the pair holding Vaughn. The agents cleared out, taking their captive with them. The crowd that had gathered from the second "freeze!' has been yelled parted, every face either staring at the detained man or the woman and child he had been with before.

"Mommy, where's Daddy going?" Cory squeaked, obviously scared.

"Back home," Sydney answered. "And so are we." She gave her father a pointed look and he nodded.

"Of course, if that's what you want." He answered.

"That's what we want," She replied coldly.

In the back of the crowd, a woman dialed a number on her cell phone and put the phone to her ear. "Trish's tip to the CIA worked. They just detained Vaughn," She told the party on the other end of the line. "She proved herself valuable for once."

"Good," came the answer. "And Sydney?"

"She's going back to the States with him and Cory," She answered.

"Excellent," the person answered. "Go with them and don't reveal anything to them, Lexy."

Lexy rolled her eyes. "You can trust me, Irina. You know that."

* * *

SSB's note: Alright, who saw that one coming? And before you accuse Lexy of being an evil you know what, remember that things aren't always as they seem. The same goes with Cory and her seeing things. If you haven't figured it out yet, it will become very obvious in the next couple chapters.

Thanks to: **alias-sydney93001, ALIASobsessed89, soccerfreeek324, Grouchy, Lil Aussie Alias Chick, largemarge416, Morgan, Five Stories Fallen, ArodLoverus2001, **and** christie** for reviewing.

Til next time,  
Melanie

Next chapter: Crimes and their punishment


	16. Crimes and their punishment

**SSB's note**: In my defense, it's hard writing a fanfiction that confuses me even sometimes. I'm really going to have to go back and rewrite a lot of the first chapters for this. I'll do that after I finish this story.

* * *

"Sydney, whose place is this?" Jack asked as he followed his daughter from the zoo where he'd found her, her daughter, and her rogue husband. What's more, is that Sydney seemed more angry than relieved that her husband had been taken into custody. Why, he had no idea.

"Lexy's," Sydney answered over her shoulder and Cory's head. Ever since she'd picked up Cory, her daughter had refused to be let down. Though, Sydney wasn't complaining much.

"And that would be…?" Jack asked as they climbed the walk to Lexy's townhouse. He'd never heard of a Lexy before, especially one in Stockholm.

"Michael's sister," Sydney replied off handedly.

The fact that she had called him Michael had thrown him off guard. The fact that Michael Vaughn had a sister momentarily confounded him. He quickly recovered and looked unaffected. "I see."

"Mommy, my head hurts again," Cory complained softly.

Sydney bit her lip and after opening the front door with the key Vaughn had given her, she placed Cory down on her feet despite the little girl's adamant protests. "Cory, shush."

"But Mommy," Cory whined latching onto one of Sydney's legs. "I don't want you to leave."

"I'm not going to leave," Sydney answered warmly.

Cory's eyes widened for some reason at this and she shook her head rapidly, hugging Sydney's arm tighter. "Please don't leave me Mommy," She whimpered.

Sydney frowned in confusion and looked up at her father for a split second. His eyes mirrored the same question. _What_ was Cory talking about? "I'm not going to leave you, sweetheart," She answered softly.

Cory looked up at her and blinked. "Promise?"

"Pinky swear," Sydney answered, holding her pinky up.

Cory still looked unconvinced. She studied her mother's small finger for a moment before hesitantly raising her own hand, hooking pinkies with her mother.

Sydney gave her a smile, raising her to feet. "Dad, can you take Cory to go pack her things?"

"NO!"

Sydney and Jack jumped when Cory protested so adamantly. She never showed any signs of disliking her grandfather. Not like she just had. Intentional or not, she gave Jack a mean look before turning to Sydney.

"You promised you wouldn't leave," She said.

Sydney bit her lip. "I'm not leaving." She answered.

"But you just said--" Cory protested.

"I meant that you go with Grandpa just to pack," Sydney interrupted. "I'll still be here."

Cory shook her head, refusing the option. "I don't wan' to go with Grandpa!"

Sydney was about to say 'I don't care what you want. Go with Grandpa' but by some small miracle, managed to hold her tongue. "We'll be with Daddy sooner if you go with Grandpa to pack your things."

She could see the hesitation in her daughter's eyes now. Perhaps it hadn't been smart to bring Vaughn into this, but if it got Cory to go with her grandfather to pack faster, then it was worth it. At long last she looked up at her mother and shook her head. "No."

Sydney sighed. She didn't have time to argue with her. If she wanted to tag along as Sydney rushed around the house, then so be it. "Alright. Dad, Cory's room is the first door on your right. Please go get her stuff repacked."

"Repacked?" Jack questioned, not moving from the spot.

"Dad. Seriously," Sydney sighed. "Just do this for me and please God, don't ask any questions."

Jack gave her a look that said 'you're going to have to answer all of my questions on the plane' before moving to go up the stairs.

"Where's Aunt Lexy?" Cory asked suddenly.

Sydney opened her mouth to reply, before promptly shutting it. That was a good question. Where was Vaughn's sister? True, she had said that she was going to go shopping but could it take that long? She'd been gone all day. Or had she…? She wasn't sure what time it was even.

"We'll leave her a note," She said finally, reaching for Cory's hand. "Now, you and me have some hurried packing to do."

**-break-**

_Sydney sighed softly, reaching for the doorbell. After hearing the 'ding dong' from inside the house, she retracted her hand, her foot tapping impatiently. Somewhere behind her a dog barked, followed closely by a loud shout of 'Casey! Get in here!' She smiled softly to herself at that. Sometimes it was good to remember that other people had normal lives._

_"Sydney… that was quick," Another brunette woman admonished after she opened the door._

_Sydney shrugged slightly. "Sorry about this Cynthia. I thought she was over the nightmares."_

_Cynthia waved her hand impatiently, beckoning Sydney into the house. "Don't worry about it." She answered. "I'm more surprised that's all. How many five year olds have nightmares?"_

_Sydney raised an eyebrow at the other woman. Did she really need an answer to that question? God, she hoped not._

_Cynthia seemed to catch the look and added, "I mean, nightmares about her father."_

_Oh. Right. Well, how many six year olds were abandoned before they were even born? Find out that number and you'll get your answer. Though, she wasn't convinced that Cory's 'nightmares' about her father were actually nightmares. From what her daughter had described, they weren't scary. Just unnerving._

_A lot like her dreams about the same man._

_"Where is she?" Sydney asked, avoiding the subject as best she could._

_"In the kitchen," Cynthia answered, picking up on the change of subject rather quickly._

_Sydney nodded her thanks, moving towards the kitchen quickly. "Cory?" She asked softly, not wanting to startle her daughter._

_Cory's head shot up from staring at the table. "Mommy!" She cried, jumping off the chair and running to embrace her mother's legs._

_It probably made her a bad mother, but sometimes Sydney really hated when Cory had a dream or question or thought about her father. It just brought back too many painful memories that had tried for five years to rid herself of. Not that it worked very well. "Are you okay, sweetie?" She asked, rubbing her daughter's back comfortably._

_Cory shook her head against the legs she was gripping in a death grip, somehow managing to squeeze tighter. Sydney didn't even flinch. "I had a bad dream."_

_"Can you tell me about it?" Sydney asked softly._

_Cory sniffed before she started to talk. "Daddy was in it and…" While she paused, her mother waited patiently for her to continue on her own. "and… h-he said that he hated m-me… and…"_

_That was enough for Sydney. With an "oh sweetie" she unwound Cory's arms from her legs long enough so she could kneel down and embrace her child. "Your father doesn't hate you," She whispered, smoothing some of Cory's hair out of her eyes._

_"Y-you're sure?" Cory asked in a small voice._

_Sydney gave her a reassuring smile and nodded solemnly. "I'm positive. He loves you very much." Or, he put on the façade of loving her when she was still in Sydney's womb. She couldn't even be sure if he loved her, when they were married or otherwise. But that wasn't something she was going to tell Cory anytime soon._

_"Then why won't he come back?" Cory questioned, resting her head against her mother's shoulder._

_Sydney stroked her child's hair absentmindedly for a moment, trying to think of a satisfactory answer besides 'I don't know'. Sadly, she realized that it was all she had. "I don't know," She replied softly. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't love you."_

_"It doesn't?" There was a hint of wonder and disbelieving in the six year old's voice._

_Sydney nodded again. "It doesn't," She confirmed. "He loves you." She repeated. "Just ask him when he comes back."_

_"He's going to come back?" Now she sounded excited._

_Sydney bit her lip, silently berating herself for saying that. She shouldn't have even hinted at the possibility that Vaughn was coming back. She had no idea if he was. "Of course," She replied against her better judgment. "And when he does, you can ask him if he loves you or not."_

_"Okay," Cory agreed, sounding happier now._

_Silently, Sydney hoped that for Cory's sake, Vaughn came back from wherever the hell he was._

**-break-**

Sydney jumped, awakening from her slumber at a rapid pace. Now… what was it that had woke her up?

_RIIIIINNNNGGGG_

Ah yes. Her cell phone. That was why she had woken up. Alright, nothing was going to die or be seriously harmed now. Still blinking sleep out of her eyes, she reached for the cell phone on the table in front of her. Honestly, she understood why CIA planes needed a table on them but it was a still a little unnerving. She'd gotten used to planes without tables. Unless you counted those ones on the back of chairs but those could hardly be called tables. More like hard place mats.

"Hello?" She croaked. Well, that hadn't been her brightest moment. She cleared her throat before trying again. "Hello?" There. Better.

"I come home to a message that says 'call me' and that's it. What's up?"

Sydney smiled to herself at the sound of her friend's voice. Thank God for Francie sometimes. "I'm coming home." She announced, her voice soft to keep from waking Cory and Jack up. Cory had still refused to go very far from Sydney, and was currently dreaming away curled up on the chair next to Sydney. Jack was across the plane.

"With Michael?" Francie asked obviously hinting for the other woman to spill every detail she could, which was everything. "You owe me. Hanging up on me two days ago and then not answering your phone until two seconds ago."

The smile on Sydney's face grew, just a little bit. "Sorry about that. Really. Something came up."

"What came up?" Francie asked, pressing for information still. "C'_mon_! I'm dying over here being left in the dark."

Sydney exhaled slowly, reaching up to rub at her temple idly. "It's complicated." She said finally.

"When is your relationship with Michael ever not complicated?" Francie pointed out. "What happened to the days of when we'd share everything?"

'I got married and had a daughter and was abandoned in between there,' Sydney answered mentally. "I don't want to do it over the phone."

"When's your flight getting in?" Francie asked.

She wasn't going to give up on getting information out of her, Sydney could tell. It might be good for her to talk to someone about what was going on. Her dad hadn't been helpful at all. She'd tried to explain what had happened and what Vaughn had told her but it all fell on deaf ears. She should have expected that.

"Sometime in the morning," She replied with a shrug.

"Syd." Francie replied. "It's already morning."

Sydney frowned, glancing at her watch. It read one in the morning. Oh. Well then. "Sometime before noon, then," She corrected herself.

"You have no idea?" Francie asked.

Sydney shook her head, even though Francie couldn't see it. "I don't feel like waking my dad up to find out," She answered, glancing over at her father. "And I'm afraid Cory'll wake up and start screaming if I go ask the pilot."

"Why would she do that?" Francie asked, sounding puzzled.

"That's the thing, I don't know why she would do that," Sydney admitted. "Ever since this afternoon, she's been clinging to my side and almost throwing a fit if I go too far."

"What does Michael have to say about this?"

"Michael doesn't know," Sydney answered carefully. "He's sort of in the custody of the United States government at the moment and I haven't talked to him since they took him in."

The line was silent for a full minute. "When was this?"

"This afternoon," She answered. "About a half an hour before Cory started her clinging."

More silence. "So you're currently on a plane back to L.A. because your husband is a prisoner?" Francie asked.

"If you want to put it that way, yes," Sydney answered.

"You could have _told_ me this from the beginning," Francie cried. "What happened between you two? I thought you hated him and now you're flying back from Europe on less than a day's notice to be with him or something along those lines? And what about Cory? How's she reacting to meeting her father? And your dad? He's there? What's up with that? And--?"

"Francie!" Sydney interrupted as loudly as she dared to. Off in his corner, Jack gave a soft snore before falling silent. Cory didn't even stir. She paused to study her daughter for a moment. She usually wasn't that heavy of a sleeper. Then again, she'd had a rather rough day with meeting her aunt, and then attempting to spend time with her father only to have him arrested and then going through 'mommy leaving' paranoia. But still, she wasn't a heavy sleeper like this.

"Sorry," Francie said, unaware to Sydney's confusion over Cory's sleeping habits. "It's just that you can't spring something like that on_ me_ and then expect me not to ask any questions."

"It's fine," Sydney answered absentmindedly. "Do you remember that time Cory was sick with the chicken pox?"

"What?" was Francie's initial reaction. That had been rather random. "Um, yeah. Why? What's going on?"

"How long did she sleep that night you watched her?" Sydney asked. She had never forgiven herself for that night. First, she had had a late class that she couldn't get another teacher to teach for her. And then on the way home, there had been a massive accident and she was stuck on the freeway for several hours. The sun was peeking over the horizon when she had finally pulled into her driveway.

"Umm… all night," Francie replied. "Out like a light at eight and she didn't even wake up when you came home."

Sydney nodded. That she remembered. They'd thought that she was in a coma or something but then she had woken up and had seemed fine.

And now Cory was sleeping heavily again. She only did that when she was sick, Sydney realized, _really_ sick. Forget going straight to Vaughn or even meeting Francie. She was going to the hospital damnit. This was more than just a cat bite. If it was a cat bite that is. Maybe Claire had been right. Maybe Louis didn't bite her. Then where did that abrasion come from?

"Syd? Hello? What's going on?" Francie's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Fran, I can't meet you when we land," Sydney replied frankly.

"Why not?" Francie asked, sounding as though she had just been rejected.

Sydney sighed frustratedly. "Because I'm going to be taking Cory to the hospital." She replied.

"What's wrong with her?"

"I'm not sure," Sydney admitted, biting her lip, reaching out with her free hand and stroking Cory's hair softly. "And that's what worries me."

**-break-**

Either the CIA had changed their process with prisoners, or he was special case. His money was on the latter.

His proof? The fact that he had gone rogue on this agency and the last time he checked, they were not nice to their traitors. Not even a little bit. Nevermind if there was a perfectly good reason behind it. Your loyalty lied with the United States government and the government alone.

Unless your name was Michael Vaughn. In which case, your loyalty lied with your wife and your daughter and your mother and a little bit your wife's mother.

He remembered the last time he had been down this hallway, the brick lined hallway towards the cells at the end. The hallway that housed the most important and often, most lethal prisoners of the CIA. The hallway that was empty most of the time, the exception being now. It had been the day he left the last time he was here. No, the day before he left. He hadn't worked the day he left. By some small twist of fate, he'd had the day off before he got that call in the middle of the night. In any case, it had been more than six years since he'd been back to this building.

The last time he'd been down the hallway, he'd been wearing the suit, escorting a silent prisoner to their highly guarded cell of solitude. He'd been the one to unlock the door, and casually push the fiend in, unlocking the handcuffs on the man, before closing and locking the glass door behind him. He'd never enjoyed locking someone away, but it always gave him a sense of propriety.

He supposed the suit leading him now was feeling the same way.

But unlike the last time he'd been here, to this hallway, there was someone waiting in his cell. If he was waiting for him, he wasn't sure. Only that this was one of the last people he'd expected to see on his first day back. Or maybe it was that he'd hoped that he wouldn't have to face this person of his past on his first day back. In either case, this wasn't going to be something he was going to look forward to.

The person shifted his weight, leaning against a small metal table in the cell. Vaughn supposed that the table, with papers and folders and a pitcher of water, with two glasses and a tape recorder on top meant that they intended to get every bit of information out of him they could and as soon as possible. He wished them luck with that. They were going to need it.

He wasn't going to talk that easily. Not when it had taken him three months to talk to the only ones he really cared about anymore.

Vaughn stayed coyly silent as the suit opened the cell door, led him in –with the casual push. His gaze turned towards the person as the suit grabbed the chains about his wrists, unlocking them with an air of distain for the person in front of him.

Vaughn couldn't blame him. If the situation were reversed, he'd hate the man who'd abandoned his pregnant wife and went rogue on his country too.

He remained silent. Long after the suit and two guards had left. Long after the precautionary doors closed, blaring some sort of bell in the process. Long after the person had sighed exactly twenty two times and gestured for him to take a seat. He did. Though still silent.

"Mike."

"Mr. Weiss," Vaughn answered, maintaining the air of indifference towards his best friend. Or was it former best friend now? He wasn't sure.

Weiss sighed for the twenty third time, shaking his head warily. "Mr. Vaughn," He corrected himself meeting the other's man gaze steadily. "I have some questions for you."

* * *

**SSB's note**: Seriously, if you have any questions, just ask and I'll give an answer. To the best of my abilities that is. Definitely going to have to go back and rewrite some chapters. I am shamed by the earlier plot holes and things of that nature.

Review responses are in my livejournal.

Next chapter: Questions and the answers


	17. Questions and the Answers

He had decided one thing when his former best friend said that sentence. He wasn't going to say anything more than the question required, but he wasn't going to lie either. It would be rather pointless to lie for hours. Just refusing to answer anything would go over a lot better.

Weiss looked at the paper in his hands after sitting across the table and then back at the convict. "Please state your name for the record."

Vaughn was silent for a moment. "You might want to turn the record on."

To say that Weiss was a little embarrassed would've been a huge understatement. He was just thankful that the cameras didn't have sound and no one else was around.

"Now, please state your name." He repeated after turning the recorder on.

"Did they put you up to this?" Vaughn asked, ignoring the question.

Deciding to just roll with it, and see where it led them, Weiss shook his head. "I volunteered."

Vaughn raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You hate the interrogations." He seemed to remember more than one time that he had covered for the other man when it came to interrogating the latest convict.

"I know," Weiss said. "But this was one that I had to do."

Vaughn snorted softly. "I'm sure."

Weiss didn't respond to that. "Please state your name for the record," He repeated.

Vaughn did as he was told this time. "Michael Vaughn."

Weiss studied the papers in his hands for a moment. Twenty fourth time sighing now.

"You could start with asking me where I've been," The convict suggested after a moment. He shrugged, "Or not."

Weiss almost laughed. Here he was getting advice on how to interrogate a criminal by the criminal. "Do you have any idea of what your leaving did to Sydney?"

Vaughn frowned a little. "That's not on your little paper, is it?" He asked. "Because that's really none of Uncle Sam's business."

"This is for me," the other replied.

The latter shrugged. "I have an idea."

"Don't get cocky with me," Weiss warned. "That's not you."

"I could've changed," Vaughn pointed out.

"Or we never actually knew you."

"That too." Vaughn admitted softly. In the silence that followed, he reached up and scratched the side of his cheek. This wasn't going as he expected it to.

Weiss kept his eyes trained on the papers in front of him. This was turning out to be harder than he thought it would. "You have forty seven counts of treason for crimes against the United States of America."

"That many," Vaughn said conversationally. "I thought turning traitor only earned me ten."

Weiss stopped. He shuffled around in his papers and pulled out one. He handed it to Vaughn, who reached as far as his handcuffs would allow.

Vaughn skimmed the paper quickly. "This is my passport." He commented.

Weiss nodded. "It was found among your things." He started. "Analysis ran a check on it, thus the other counts of treason."

"Hm," was all that the convict had to say in response as he put the paper back down on the table.

"Which makes me wonder what you've been up to for the past six years," Weiss continued. He leaned back in his chair as he said this. He had the sneaky suspicion this would take a while. Not the explaining portion but getting his friend to talk part.

As he predicted, Vaughn didn't say anything for a very long time. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock, steadily counted away the seconds. When he finally did speak, it wasn't what he expected either, "I reserve my fifth amendment rights."

"What?"

"I'm sure the record got that just fine," Vaughn said placidly.

"Why would you plead the fifth?"

Another silence. Despite his silent promise, he wasn't going to answer this question. Undoubtedly, word of it would make its way back to Sydney, and eventually Cory. And this was one thing they both could stand to live without. "Do I need to remind you of what the Fifth Amendment states?"

"No," Weiss retorted. He decided not to press the issue anymore. It was clear that Vaughn wasn't going to say anything on the matter right now. "Did you work as an agent of Irina Derevko?"

The reaction was immediate. The convict's face closed over, his eyed hardened, his mouth formed a thin line, and he gave off the very aura of anger. "I don't see how that question is relevant."

"Does it have to be relevant?"

"It has to be based on something reasonable, which this particular one is not," Vaughn defended.

"Are you going to answer the question or not?"

"No."

Weiss sighed for the twenty fifth time and shuffled his papers around. "Do you know this woman?" He asked, holding up a photograph.

Another one of the now familiar silences filled the air. Finally Vaughn sighed, rubbing his cheek –not the one he had itched earlier- warily. "She's my half sister." He admitted.

"And her name?"

He had the feeling that Weiss already knew her name, but he answered anyway, "Alexandria."

"And her last name?"

Vaughn shrugged. "She gave me a fake one and she hasn't told me a real one yet."

"And that never stuck you as odd?"

Of course he found it odd that she wouldn't give him a last name, but he never questioned it. She was deeper into things than he ever was, and he could understand her need for a false name. "Not really."

"Care to explain your reasoning?"

All Vaughn had to do was give his friend a pointed look for Weiss to move onto another question. "Have you ever visited the United States of America in the past six years since your disappearance?"

"Define 'visit'."

"Stepped onto American soil."

This time, Vaughn didn't hesitate. "Once," He replied. "About two months ago, until about a week ago, give or take a few days."

Weiss seemed surprised. "How did you get past customs?"

"I learned more than how to shoot at a gun at the Farm," Vaughn said. "That, and your customs officials aren't doing their job properly."

"I'll have that looked into," Weiss muttered, shaking his head a little.

"Why did you never try to contact your family?"

Vaughn sent him another hard look.

"That falls under the fifth too, I'm assuming?"

He nodded.

"Alright, why'd you leave?"

Vaughn blinked slowly. "That is also none of the government's business."

Weiss did something the other wasn't expecting. He leaned forward and turned off the recorder. "This is just between you and me," He said. "Why'd you do it?"

He couldn't even provide himself a reason that helped him sleep at night. How was he supposed to give one to someone else? He sighed, rubbing his cheek idly. After a moment, he merely shrugged. "You can turn that back on; I'm not going to say anything."

To say that Weiss was disappointed that his former friend couldn't provide him with a single reason as to his abandonment would have been an understatement. He shook his head and pulled his paper towards him again. "We…" He stopped. "We have a plea bargain ready for you. I'm sure you know how those work."

Did he know how those work? He admitted to doing something he may or may not have done for a lesser sentence. Basically just saving the courts the trouble of proving all of his crimes. Vaughn took the paper offered to him and skimmed it.

He only read about half of it before tossing it back onto the table. "I'm not agreeing to that."

The years in prison he could deal with. In fact, he'd been expecting ever since he was arrested in that zoo in Stockholm. The government liked to put people in prison for their crimes. Unless of course, you signed their plea bargain. And he wouldn't have had problem with that either, if his own plea bargain hadn't offered ten years, no probation, no visits. That he would not agree to.

Weiss sighed with obvious annoyance. "And why not?" He asked, more out of a duty to his country than his own curiosity.

Vaughn was tempted not to give him a reason. He could say that he claimed his Fifth Amendment rights and really stick it to those bastards that thought up this plea bargain. Or he could be complying and give his interrogator a break.

He leaned forward, placing his hands on the table in between them. "Three days ago, I met my daughter for the first time." He paused, staring at his hands. "You don't know what it's like to meet your child for the first time. It's… indescribable. I could sit here for the rest of the day and still not be able to thing of anything to say about it." He stopped again.

"I'll pay my debt to society; I'm not trying to get out of that. But… I'm not giving up the next ten years of my daughter's life."

"You know that if we take this to trial, you could get life," Weiss said, a tone of regret in his voice.

"Then I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take." Vaughn replied simply.

"What does Sydney have to say about any of this?"

"I don't know. You could ask her when she returns from Stockholm."

"Her plane landed an hour ago," Weiss informed him. "She and Jack took Cory to the hospital."

Vaughn started in his chair. The hospital? What for? That thing on her arm? It couldn't have been that serious… he hoped. "Have you talked to her?"

Weiss shook his head sadly. "No. Jack called and that was all he said. I could call him and find out…" He left the sentence hanging on purpose.

There wasn't any hesitation in Vaughn's voice when he answered, "Call him."

**-break-**

"_You need to eat." _

_Sydney glared at him through the covers she lay sandwiched between. "You're not my dad." She countered immaturely. _

"_I should hope not," Vaughn muttered with a roll of his eyes. "I'd probably have to take that nine millimeter to myself." _

_With another glare, Sydney smacked him as best she could through two layers of blankets and very little strength. "You always try to be funny at the wrong times." _

_Vaughn laughed, shaking his head ruefully. "You still need to eat." _

"_You need to go to work," She pointed out. _

"_Yes, and you need to keep up your strength." _

"_Perhaps," She shrugged. "You need to keep bringing home the bread." _

"_I thought I brought home the meat." _

_She shook her head, making a pitiful reach for her water. He took mercy on her and handed her the glass. "Nope. I do. You're on bread duty," She responded before taking a small sip of her water and then coughing immediately after when the icy liquid touched her raw throat. _

"_We'll discuss this after you eat." _

"_God, you're annoying," She muttered, handing the glass to him. _

_He took it and set it down on the table next to their bed. Immediately after he inched the soup bowl towards her a little more. "C'mon… it's chicken and rice. You're favorite."_

_She eyed the soup bowl with no small amount of hesitation. "What if I said that I wasn't hungry?" _

"_Then I'd call you a liar," He replied simply. "And then tell you that I did not get this soup out of a can." _

"_You didn't?" She asked, sounding mildly interested now. _

"_No," He affirmed. "I made it with my superior cooking skills, which means you are going to eat it." _

"_Don't you have to go to work?" She asked, still avoiding the issue of having to eat. _

"_When I called you in sick, your dad suggested that I stay home with you." _

_Her mouth dropped. "You're kidding." _

"'_Fraid not," He said grimly. "But I wasn't going to question it. When else would I get the entire day to pester you?" _

_She gave him a glare and held out her hand for the bowl of soup. "Good girl," He murmured, handing it to her while he reached behind him for the bed tray. After putting it over her lap, he took the bowl back and placed it on the tray. "I even crushed up some crackers for you already," He added, setting those down to her bowl. _

"_I feel like I'm twelve and my nanny's here again," She grumbled, inwardly pleased that he was being this thoughtful. Nobody, not even the nanny, had done this much for her when she was sick. She was so glad that she married him. _

"_Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?" He snickered. _

_She gave him a weak punch to the arm. "Just keep talking wise guy. I've been wanting to cough on you all day." _

"_I wouldn't care." _

"_Oh yes you would. You'd get sick." _

_He shrugged. "And then I'd have to you to stay at home and cater to my every whim and annoy me." _

_Sydney couldn't help but smile softly at him. "I'd kiss you for that if I wasn't sick." _

"_That isn't going to stop me," Vaughn responded, closing the distance between them and giving her a quick but sweet kiss. "Now eat your soup. I saved the best part for last." _

"_And what would that be?" _

"_A very large tub of coffee ice cream. Recommended for spies with bad colds that makes their throat very sore." _

"_That was mighty specific of you," She teased. _

"_Hey, keep teasing me and you won't get any." _

"_You don't even like coffee ice cream." _

"_I'll give it to Weiss." _

_She mock gasped. "You wouldn't." _

"_I will if you don't eat that soup." _

"_Alright already," Sydney said exasperated as she picked up her fork. "But I demand that we watch a chick flick while eating that ice cream." _

"_I'll consider it," Vaughn answered. _

**-break-**

Sydney had never developed a liking for hospitals. It all started when she four. She had broken her leg out in the middle of the woods and it had been at least three hours before she got a doctor. And to be it simply, the doctor wasn't too sympathetic towards a sobbing four year old.

From then on out, she tried to avoid the doctor's office and hospitals like the plague. Sure, she went in for her required biannual check up, and if anything else arose, like a mysterious illness, or a breakage of a bone. But if it was something simple, like a cold, then she'd suffer.

Now she sat in a hospital room, just having finally got her daughter to go to sleep after four hours of nothing but a near panic attack. The doctors weren't saying anything about what was wrong with the girl, and truthfully, Sydney hadn't expected them to.

But Cory on the other hand, didn't have the same discipline as her mother. She had been patient for as long as a six year old could, then she started to whine. The bed was uncomfortable. She wanted to go home. The room had a funny smell. She wanted her teddy bear. The hospital blankets were too thin and she was cold.

Sydney fluffed pillows, and made the bed as comfortable as she could. She patiently said that in the morning, if the doctor said it was alright, they could go home. There wasn't much she could do about the smell. She had called her dad and asked him to stop by the house and bring her teddy bear. And right now, Cory slept under a pile of five blankets.

Now all she had to do was wait for the doctors to come back with their tests results and tell her what the hell was wrong with her daughter. She didn't expect that until at least morning.

There was a small cot by the window for her to sleep on if she ever got tired and wanted to go to bed. Honestly, she couldn't see herself sleeping at all tonight. The events of the day before and then today with the constant tests, and Cory's very obvious fear, all had her wired and sleep was just not an option.

As much as she needed to, she didn't want to think about where Vaughn was. He was safe in the custody of the government and that was all she needed to know. She didn't need any details about his interrogation –if that had even taken place yet- and she definitely didn't need to see him right now.

Right now, all that mattered was making sure that Cory was okay.

She didn't want to talk to Francie either. It wasn't anything against her friend, it was just that a friend wasn't someone she needed right now. After stretching her arms above her head, she reached for her cell phone. She was just dialing her father's number when the man walked into the hospital room.

A bit confused, she put the phone down and slowly got out of her chair. "Did you bring…" She stopped herself when her dad held up the teddy bear. "Thanks. Um, she's sleeping right now but I'll tell her that you stopped by.

"I think I want to be alone right now, Dad," She added in a soft voice. "… I need some time to think, you know."

"I understand," Jack responded, giving her a one armed hug. He cast a glance towards his sleeping granddaughter and then left the hospital room.

Sydney sighed to herself. Yeah, just because she needed the time to think, didn't mean that she wanted to. She placed the teddy bear on the foot of the bed on her way back to the chair she had been sitting in before.

With a small sigh, she leaned forward, resting her elbows against her thighs. She briefly envied the sleeping state that her daughter currently resided in. This was part of the reason that made being an adult hard. You couldn't sleep randomly without consequences.

Sydney was only aware that she had started to doze off when she felt someone shaking her shoulder. She jumped, almost hitting the person that was shaking her.

"Mrs. Vaughn?" The nurse whispered, not even fazed that she was almost head butted. "The doctor would like to see you in the hall."

Sydney frowned. "Why?"

"He has a diagnosis for your daughter." The nurse replied simply.

* * *

**SSB's note**: Yeah, I know, it's been a while. Life's been hectic and all those excuses. I'm updating, slowly but surely.

More about my excuses on my livejournal. Found in the homepage link in my profile.

Thanks for all the support and have a great Turkey Day for the next... three hours or so if you live in the U.S. If not, then Happy Thursday.


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